National Nurses United

NewsBriefs_NN FNL 2/26/10 5:52 PM Page 12 WRAP-UP REPORT the website in the state capitol March 12, and informed NNOC that hospitals might be required to report staffing ratios in the future. Pennsylvania in december, Pennsylvania's State Senate held a historic first hearing on a bill that would establish a state-based single-payer healthcare system. The hearing was historic in part because it was held by a Republican, Senator Don White, a former insurance broker. As he said at the hearing, "there were those who said I should not have this hearing", but he believed it was a "positive" hearing and that it should be the beginning of a series. Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals union president and ER nurse, Patricia Eakin testified at the hearing about the health problems she sees in the ER in patients who lack insurance as well as the excess spending by the hospital on billing and administration. Others who testified in favor of single payer included two Republicans, one a business owner who said that the cost of health care has made his business uncompetitive and the other a doctor who argued that he spends less time with patients because so much of his time is spent wrangling with 20 different insurance plans with different rules. Pennsylvania is a key state in the fight for single-payer healthcare as there is a robust grassroots movement in the state. There is also support by both Democrats and Republicans and a Governor who had previously committed to sign onto single- payer legislation. While continuing to support a national single-payer healthcare bill, the nurses of PASNAP will continue to play a role in Pennsylvania's fight for guaranteed healthcare. Texas members of National Nurses Organizing Committee Texas have mobilized to support a nurse who faced criminal charges for blowing the whistle on a doctor who she believed posed a threat to patients at her hospital. In a surreal case of Wild West justice, Anne Mitchell, RN, was arrested by the sheriff in Kermit, TX (population 5200) last year after making what she thought was a confidential report to the Texas Medical Board. The sheriff, a former patient and friend of the doctor in question, charged Mitchell with misuse of official information, a third-degree felony that could have carried a 10-year prison sentence. NNOC Texas collected over 100 signatures from Texas RNs on a petition urging Healthcare Stat of the Month 39% $2.7 Billion Amount by which Anthem Blue Cross, one of California's largest health insurers, said they will increase premiums for some individual policyholders this year Amount Anthem's parent company, WellPoint, earned in the fourth quarter of 2009 12 N AT I O N A L N U R S E W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G NNOC Texas members Maginia Morales, RN, Raul Sotelo, RN, and Maria Theresa Ernest, RN at the installation of officers for the El Paso Pilipino Nurses Association. the state's attorney general to intervene in the case. Mitchell was acquitted February 11. NNOC Texas nurses say the case illustrates the need for the whistle-blower protection law they will introduce in the Texas legislature in 2011, as well as a federal bill sponsored by National Nurses United that would protect nurses nationwide who speak out for patients. "As nurses we have an obligation to report any type of medical breach or misconduct and that's what these nurses did," said Gwen Agbatekwe, RN, an NNOC Texas member who attended Mitchell's trial. "With whistle-blower protection, this scenario would never have gone any farther than the Texas Medical Board." Veterans Affairs Council national veterans Affairs Council RNs voted by an overwhelming majority in February to endorse the organization's affiliation with National Nurses United and transfer collective bargaining rights to the new organization. VA nurses are working to repeal a federal law forbidding them from bargaining with the government over compensation, competency, peer review or professional conduct. Though there are loopholes in the statute, the VA has often used it to avoid negotiating with nurses over matters from accidental needle sticks to medical equipment sterilization. The Veterans Affairs Council along with other unions representing VA workers plans to have a joint meeting with the VA in late February to discuss the issue. JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2010

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