Planning to spark a fundamental change in national healthcare politics, nurses from Massachusetts and throughout New England have joined an unprecedented national coalition of nurses and doctors organizations which today announced plans to rally around the openings of Michael Moore's "SiCKO" on June 29 to press the campaign for single-payer healthcare, guaranteeing comprehensive, quality healthcare with an expanded and improved Medicare for all. The Coalition is also planning a special preview screening, town hall meeting and press conference with Michael Moore as part of the national "SiCKO" bus tour, which will land in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday, June 22, beginning at 12 noon.
Calling it "The Scrubs for SiCKO Campaign," organizers will recruit registered nurses and doctors to every theater in the nation where "SiCKO" opens to ensure that caregivers -- in SiCKO scrubs -- are in the audience.
The caregivers will distribute information and urge moviegoers to join the drive for a fundamental overhaul of the nation's dysfunctional healthcare system -- as is so brilliantly described in "SiCKO". They will urge the audience to help pass single-payer/Medicare for all types of legislation such as HR 676 now pending in Congress and several states, and make it a central focus of the Presidential campaign.
Nurses and doctors are serving as co-hosts of "SiCKO" premiers across the nation.
Participating groups include the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, Physicians for a National Health Program, New York State Nurses Association, Massachusetts Nurses Association, United Steelworkers (USW) Health Care Workers Council, Communication Workers of America, Health Professionals and Allied Employees/AFT, United Nurses and Allied Professionals (Rhode Island), United Nurses and Allied Professionals (Rhode Island), and the New England Nurses Association. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is also working with the coalition.
A delegation of nurses and doctors from across the country will embark Monday on a tour of East Coast cities to help energize the nurse grassroots. The tour will mostly take place in a colorfully wrapped bus encouraging people to see the movie and is being planned in conjunction with premiers of the film in New York, Washington DC, Chicago and New Hampshire.
"SiCKO" profiles a number of Americans with insurance who have been denied needed care by their insurance company, describes how the insurance-based healthcare system is structured to keep it that way, and provides examples of other industrialized nations where insurance companies do not stand in the way of medical care.
The campaign will highlight the need for reforms that prevent insurance companies from denying care, and send a strong signal to politicians in Congress, state capitals, and the Presidential race who are promoting insurance-based reforms.
HR 676 and similar bills in several state legislatures, including SB 755, the Massachusetts Healthcare Trust bill, will have one public entity collecting and dispensing all revenues for care delivered by our current, mostly private hospitals, clinics, and doctors, similar to how Medicare works. The system is universal, assures comprehensive benefits, guarantees freedom to choose your provider, and controls costs. It also drastically curbs administrative costs -- and the waste caused by insurance company profits and paperwork.
