National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:Final 6/7/07 2:55 PM Page 6 NewsBriefs Legislative Update all or write your representatives today to show your support for the following CNA/NNOC-sponsored California bills. This package of legislation is intended to ensure a single standard of guaranteed healthcare for all Californians, to prevent back injuries among RNs by establishing hospital lift teams, and to protect the rights of RNs to union representation. Visit www.assembly.ca.gov and www.senate.ca.gov to find your legislators. This information is current as of press time, but for the latest, please visit www.calnurses.org. C CNA-Sponsored Bills SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE COVERAGE, SB 840 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (Santa Monica); CNA/NNOC is principal sponsor Californian's healthcare system is in crisis with 6.5 million without health insurance, costs driven up by insurance bureaucracy, and constantly shrinking benefits with employees paying more and more of the costs. This bill would establish the California Universal Healthcare System (CUHS) under which all California residents would be eligible for comprehensive healthcare benefits. The CUHS would, like Medicare, be the public payer for private providers and patients would choose their doctor and hospital and never receive an insurance bill. It would be financed by eliminating insurance gatekeeping and profits and using the billions of dollars to provide care to everyone. This bill passed out of the Senate and now moves before the Assembly Committee on Health. gaining contract (most health plans cost employers 9–12 percent). With this financing and public programs such as Medicare, MediCal, and Medicaid, all Californians will receive better benefits, and will not have their healthcare coverage dependent on insurance companies and employers. Retirees not yet 65 will be covered by this plan and will not have to worry about being denied due to pre-existing conditions or driven into medical bankruptcy. Due to state budget implications, the bill is currently being held in the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. CALIFORNIA SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE COVERAGE: FINANCING, SB 1014 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (Santa Monica); CNA/NNOC is principal sponsor This bill creates the California Health Insurance System Funding law that places a payroll tax on all employers and income tax on employees (like Medicare) for the purpose of funding a single-payer healthcare system (SB 840). Employers would pay about an 8.17 percent payroll tax on specified incomes and employees would be taxed about 3.78 percent of payroll on specified incomes unless they had another agreement in a collective bar6 REGISTERED NURSE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: DIRECT CARE RNS, AB 1201 by Assemblymember Mark Leno (San Francisco) The Bush NLRB is trying to limit RNs in collectively advocating for themselves and their patients. On October 4, 2006, the National Labor Relations Board declared that hospital RNs across the country who exercise professional clinical judgment in the interests of patents are "supervisors" and thus ineligible to join unions. AB 1201 would have ensured that California's direct-care nurses preserve their collective bargaining W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G rights, thereby preserving their rights under their existing contracts to challenge hospital staffing and effectively advocate for quality healthcare for their patients. This bill was held in Assembly appropriations under extremely suspicious circumstances. LIFT TEAMS AND EQUIPMENT, SB 171 by Sen. Pro Tem Don Perata (Oakland) More healthcare workers, 95 percent of whom are women, suffer debilitating musculoskeletal work injuries than construction and truck drivers costing hundreds of millions of dollars every year; yet hospitals have been slow to use the latest injury prevention lift equipment and lift teams. This bill requires all general acute-care hospitals to implement a "zero lift" policy that will use the latest occupational health methods of safely moving, transferring, and repositioning patients by teams of workers trained in methods and equipment that help nurses and healthcare givers safely move patients. The bill will also prohibit hospitals from disciplining healthcare workers who refuse to lift a patient because of safety concerns from lack of adequate equipment, training, or access to lift teams. The bill passed out of the M AY 2 0 0 7

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