New York doctors and nurses out in force for SiCKO premiere

[eridani]

For Immediate Release

Contacts: Nancy Webber, NYSNA Communications Director: 518.782.9400, ext. 223, e-mail
Joanne Landy, PNHP Metro Chapter: 212.666.4001; cell: 646.207.5203, e-mail

Healthcare providers to attend “SiCKO” premiere
Speak out for a national health insurance plan
New York, N.Y., June 15, 2007 – Registered nurses, doctors, and other healthcare providers will be out in force Monday evening, June 18, when Michael Moore’s new film, “SiCKO”, premieres in New York City at the Ziegfeld Theatre.

More than 100 members of the New York State Nurses Association(NYSNA), Physicians for a National Health Program (PHNP) NY MetroChapter, the New York City Central Labor Council, and the CaliforniaNurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee will arrive infront of the theater at 6:30 p.m. on the “Scrubs forSiCKO” bus. The bus will travel on to “SiCKO” premieres inPhiladelphia; Washington, D.C.; and Manchester, N.H.

The nurses’ group, all wearing “Scrubs for SiCKO,” will gatheroutside the theater to talk about the need for universal health careboth in New York and across the nation. They believe the message of thefilm – that health care in the U.S. is inefficient, inadequate, and unfair – will help build widespread support for a single-payer nationalhealth insurance plan.

“Health care is a right, not a privilege,” said Verlia M. Brown, RN,a critical care nurse at Kings County Hospital and president of NYSNA.“To make sure that every American has access to care, we must abandon asystem controlled by for-profit, private insurance companies. We need asingle-payer plan that covers everyone.”

Oliver Fein, MD, chair of the PNHP NY Metro Chapter and Professor ofClinical Medicine and Clinical Public Health at the Weill CornellMedical College, said, “We’ve waited too long for a single-payernational health insurance system that provides comprehensive, highquality health care to everyone. We call on our political leaders toplace the needs of the American people above those of the insurance anddrug companies that have until now blocked real health reform.”

Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of CNA, noted that “SiCKO” is“not just an indictment of an indefensible healthcare industry in theU.S. It’s an answer to those who think we can fix the problem bytinkering with an unconscionable system that puts us further in thrallto those who created the crisis.”

NYSNA, PNHP, and CNA all support H.R.676, a bill now before Congressthat would establish a single-payer health insurance plan for allAmericans. NYSNA also has testified at the State Capitol on behalf ofthe New York Health Plan (A.7354/S.3107), legislation that would createa statewide single-payer insurance system.

With more than 34,000 members, NYSNA is the oldest and largest statenurses’ association in the nation. It is an influential union for RNs,representing nurses in New York and New Jersey. Offering a wide rangeof services to its members, NYSNA fosters high standards of nursingeducation and practice and works to advance the profession throughlegislative activity. It is a constituent of the American Nurses Association and of the United American Nurses, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

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