J.R. McLain

Rachel Prusak

Nurses for Single Payer is growing, and we elected Board members and officers this month.

Please congratulate our new officers:  Carole Most, President and Rachel Prusak, Vice President.  Continuing as officers are Kathy Birch, Secretary,  and Tom Sincic, Treasurer.  New Board member J.R. McLain joins David Young and Betsy Zucker.

We want to welcome the two new NFSP Board members, who bring fresh energy, excitement and dedication to our movement: Rachel Prusak, FNP, and J.R. McLain, RN.  Continue reading →

The best defense is a good offense.

Nurses’ struggle for universal, publicly funded health care takes on increased urgency now with the threats to health care access on the national stage, and budget woes here in Oregon.  Many of us have taken action. We now have an opportunity to push even more strongly and vocally for single payer health care as the right solution to what ails the current health care system,  while continuing to fight against cutbacks to current programs.

Nancy Sullivan and Betsy Zucker, NFSP Board Members, meeting with Earl Blumenauer’s staff and HCAO activists, Feb 22, 2017

NFSP Board Member Tom Sincic, FNP at the ONA Lobby Day, Salem, Feb. 14, 2017

Oregon

Budget Deficit:  Oregon faces a very large budget deficit with the defeat of Measure 97.  It is essential to raise additional revenue, in order to avoid cutting essential health care services for our most vulnerable citizens. Contact your state legislators and let them know that you support raising revenue.

Rand Study on health care financing and next steps to single payer: The long-awaited Rand Corporation study of Oregon health care financing has been released (summary here; full report here). It confirms single payer as a viable health care financing plan.  State Sen. Michael Dembrow will be asking the legislature to establish a Task Force for implementation (see article in the Lund Report), and we will be mobilizing in support of this legislation.

Other Oregon legislative priorities:  Click HERE for good summaries of the bills HCAO and NFSP will be following and supporting in this legislative session.  These will be updated regularly, as bills move through the Legislature.  We encourage you to use this information and stay in touch with your legislator.

National 

Increased interest in National Health Insurance (Expanded and Improved Medicare for All)

Earl Blumenauer, Oregon’s U.S. Representative for the 3rd Congressional District, recently announced that he will be a co-sponsor for HR 676.  This is big news: he is the first Oregon Congressperson to co-sponsor HR 676!  Call and let him know that you support his stance. Portland  503-231-2300;   Washington, DC  202-225-4811,

There is renewed interest in national health care.  Check out the the new national Campaign for Guaranteed Healthcare,  a coalition of organizations and individuals advocating for Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676.

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Now Is The Time is a new film, which proposes a timely replacement for Obamacare.   When former Oregon-resident filmmakers Laurie Simons and Terry Sterrenberg began shooting Now is the Time- Healthcare for Everybody, they had no idea the U.S. healthcare system was about to be thrown into disarray by the new administration’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, potentially causing millions of Americans to lose their healthcare access. But the threat of impending major changes to the healthcare system makes their film even more timely.
Continue reading →

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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.