National Nurses United

single payer system that would provide that. That's where nurses as patient ad- vocates fulfill their role and ethical ob- ligations in pursuing these things. Q: Do you think most nurses support single payer and they just don't know it because the conversation around it is so taboo in this country? A: Nurses intuitively know from their work in the hospitals and other places that this system could be greatly im- proved. Nurses travel, they go abroad, they see how other countries have or- ganized their healthcare. It's truly em- barrassing here. You can go abroad and if you fell ill or were injured, that sys- tem would respond to you. Nobody would check your wallet first. We have some lessons to learn. I think the de- bate has been deferred for a long time, since the early 90s when we were talk- ing about healthcare as a national cri- sis. But it's ironic that we have more people uninsured now than we had in the 1990s, yet it's not a crisis anymore. Obviously, attention to healthcare and other important issues have been side- tracked by military ventures abroad, by fear of terrorism and other things that displace healthcare from a promi- nent position on the national agenda. Healthcare is fundamental to every so- ciety's well-being and we haven't done a very good job in this country of or- ganizing those resources so they serve the population better. There's no coun- try in the world that has the resources to avoid the number of uninsured that we have that hasn't, except the United States. But there are entrenched busi- nesses out there trying to protect their profits. It's a multibillion dollar busi- ness. They don't mind that 30 percent of the costs are administrative. So peo- ple out there just have to realize that it's a long haul. Q: How do you talk about single payer with nurses who aren't familiar with the concept? A: First and foremost, nurses are con- cerned about the quality of what they do at the bedside and how that affects their patients. It's important for nurses to realize that from the very beginning, unless we have single payer, patients don't have the access to healthcare, ac- cess to the skills, access to the tech- niques, access to the medications that this system can and should provide to people. It's unconscionable for this country to try to block people from Follow the Money Our 2005 special election index Percentage of Californians who did not want a special election this November: 60 Number of months until next regularly-scheduled election: 7 Number of California residents out of 10 who say they are very satisfied with the state's initiative process: 1 Number of initiatives on the special election ballot: 8 Low end of estimated cost of special election: $45 million High end of estimated cost of special election: $80 million $80 million could buy one year of health insurance for this many uninsured Californians ages 30-49: 34,188 $80 million could pay for this many RN salaries for one year: 1,840 Average percentage of eligible voter turnout in California for a special election: 32 Likely percentage of eligible voter turnout in California for an initiative-only special election: 26 Dollar limit on individual contributions allowed to Schwarzenegger's political committees before he sued to overturn those limits: $22,300 Dollar limit on individual contributions allowed to Schwarzenegger's political committees after he sued: none Amount of money you'd need to give to rank in the top 100 contributors to Schwarzenegger: $86,200 Amount given by top 100 contributors to Schwarzenegger: $30 million Number of Schwarzenegger's top 10 contributors that are also on Forbes' 2004 list of 400 richest Americans: 5 Rank of state of California in the nation on number of dollars spent on political lobbying in 2004: 1 Amount of money that translates into: $212.7 million Ratio of business contributions to federal candidates compared to labor contributions, in 2004: 15:1 Percentage of contributions received by Small Business Action PAC, a committee backing Prop. 75, that come from large corporations or people connected to them: 99.1 Amount that Small Business Action PAC has given to Yes on Prop. 75 committee so far: $555,000 Number of pharmaceutical companies required by Prop. 78, a drug industry-backed initiative, to offer prescription discounts: 0 Number of contributors to Prop. 78 that are not pharmaceutical companies: 0 Average amount of top 10 drug company contributions supporting Prop. 78: $6.7 million Amount raised this year by Prop. 78 committee as of end of September: $80 million Number of ads run in first half of October by committee to pass Prop. 78: 3,636 Number of ads run by opponents of Prop. 78 during same period: 0 Annual income over which an uninsured individual would be disqualified from the Prop. 78 discount: $29,000 Sources: 1 Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC); 2 Ca. Secretary of State; 3 PPIC; 4-6 Ca. Secretary of State; 7 Families USA; 8 2000 U.S. Census data; 9 UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies; 10 Sacramento Bee; 11, 12 Ca. Fair Political Practices Commission; 13-15 Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights (FTCR) and 15 Forbes; 16, 17 Center for Public Integrity; 18 Center for Responsive Politics; 19 Ca. Secretary of State campaign filings, as of 8/1/05; 20 FTCR; 21 Ballot language of Prop. 78; 22, 23 Ca. Secretary of State campaign filings; 24-26 California HealthCare Foundation; 27 Ca. Legislative Analyst's Office C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 5 5

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