NFSP participated in the Labor & Community rally and march, 
and then in the massive Women’s March, where we joined approximately 100,000 others! We handed out yellow “Nurses for Single Payer” buttons, and our friends from HCAO did a great job gathering signatures for the HCAO Statement of Support (for single payer health care). Between HCAO, Nurses for Single Payer, and members of the Jobs with Justice Health Care Committee, single payer was well-represented on this historic occasion.
Oregon nurses, including many wearing Nurses for Single Payer buttons, were in evidence at the Save Health Care Rally hosted by members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation in Portland on November 15, 2016. A surprising number of signs in support of single payer health care were in evidence in the gymnasium and outside in the overflow area. Continue reading
Nurses had a strong showing at the statewide meeting of Health Care for All – Oregon (HCAO) in Corvallis on November 12, 2016, our single payer advocacy coalition. We attended workshops, and networked with health care advocates from all over Oregon. Pictured are just some of the many nurse activists who attended!
Nurses for Single Payer is releasing a new video and an updated toolkit for meeting with your legislator.
Beginning in the fall 2016, we are urging Oregon nurses and nursing students to visit their current state legislators and legislative candidates to talk about universal, publicly funded health care. All studies show that nurses are the most trusted health care professionals, and when we speak, the public (and legislators!) listen.
We have assembled a toolkit with everything you need to speak to your legislator about your passion for universal health care: this short training video, a meeting guide, and the latest legislative information from Health Care for All Oregon, including upcoming bills that we will be supporting. This information can form the basis of a visit with your legislator.
On Wednesday, October 19, 2016, Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick introduced a resolution to the City Council on behalf of Health Care for All – Oregon. It called on the state legislature to form a strong task force to act on the recommendations of a health care financing study currently being done in Oregon. The resolution passed unanimously.
Nancy Sullivan, a board member of Nurses for Single Payer and a retired nurse-midwife, gave eloquent testimony in support of the resolution, and in support of single payer health care (read her testimony here). After the resolution passed, Commissioner Amanda Fritz, a retired psychiatric nurse, made a strong statement in appreciation of our work as nurses advocating for single payer health care.
Nurses for Single Payer Chris Tanner, PhD, RN, FAAN and Nancy Sullivan, RN, MS, FACNM continue to present to our colleagues around the state on the need for single payer health care and the growing movement among nurses to lead the way. They will be presenting at the Oregon Public Health Association conference on October 10, “Oregon Nurses Advocating for a Universal, Publicly Funded Healthcare System in Oregon”, and at ONA’s Nurse Practitioners of Oregon convention in Hood River on October 13: “What would single payer means for NPs?” Let us know if you’d like a presentation at your conference, your school, or your meeting!
Oregon: A study of the best way to fund universal health care is underway in Oregon, performed by the Rand Corporation under contract from the Oregon Health Authority, as required by last year’s HB 2828. Full results are expected later this fall. Similar studies elsewhere have often demonstrated the superiority of single payer financing.
Colorado: This November, voters will vote on ColoradoCare, a quasi-single payer, publicly funded health care system.
New York: New York Health, a single payer bill, has twice passed the New York State Assembly, most recently in June 2016. It will also need to pass the NY State Senate to be enacted. The NY State Nurses Association has been one of the most prominent supporters of this legislation.
Tom Sincic, FNP and Isabel Toledo, PMHNP, represented Nurses for Single Payer at the ONA convention in Seaside, Oregon in April, 2016. They signed up nurses to get involved with the movement for single payer in Oregon, passed out NURSES FOR SINGLE PAYER buttons, and even sold T-shirts to our fans. ONA is an organizational member of the statewide Health Care for All Oregon coalition.
In February 2016, Nurses for Single Payer brought information on Single Payer Healthcare to the Oregon Student Nurses Association conference at PCC Sylvania. Nancy Sullivan and Chris Tanner presented workshops. Tablers included Nancy and Chris as well as Kathy Birch, Tom Sincic, and Betsy Zucker.
I was lucky enough to attend the annual OSNA Convention at PCC Sylvania where nursing students from programs all over Oregon came to expand their horizons as
future or current nurses. There were breakout sessions led by professionals from many different areas of health care and leadership, from flight nursing to socialinnovation, and everything in between. I had the opportunity to sit in on a few breakout sessions, one of which delved into healthcare equity, and I was amazed, yet again, at the depth and width there is in the nursing profession.
The women who led the Healthcare Equity session, Nancy Sullivan and Christine Tanner, walked us through the limitations and injustices within our current insurance system. They not only shared statistics, but also stories about the people behind the numbers: stories about Continue reading