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B efore volunteering as a disaster relief RN for Hurricane Katrina, Diane Foxen wouldn't have described herself at all as a political person. She was aware that the uninsured is a major problem in the state and country, but didn't give those issues much thought in between her busy schedule working nights as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, and single- handedly raising her 15-year-old son, Nick. In late September, Foxen jumped at the chance to volunteer as a nurse through CNA to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. For two weeks, Foxen worked at Earl K. Long Memorial Hospital, the only public hospital in Baton Rouge and a main recipient of hurri- cane evacuees needing medical help. She was so moved by all the people in desperate need of healthcare that she made a second trip to the Gulf to volunteer at a makeshift commu- nity clinic in New Orleans. She met patient after patient with no insurance. "When I was working at those clinics, it didn't matter whether you had insurance or not," said Foxen. "We gave care with dignity and equal care to everyone. And this gave me the feeling, 'This is supposed to be the way it is in America.'" The experience transformed Foxen. Back in California, she got political. Real political. She became active in CNA and volunteered to spend a week before last year's special elec- tion traveling around the state in an RV to talk to the public and nurses about the organiza- tion's political agenda. And she is now a strong supporter of establishing a Medicare- style healthcare system in the U.S. for all resi- dents—what's often called "single-payer." Foxen and more than 120 other nurses who volunteered through CNA and its national arm, the National Nurses Organiz- ing Committee, in the Gulf Coast had a chance to think deeply about their experi- ences at a reunion of volunteers March 15 in San Francisco. The event not only honored the nurses and let them process their obser- vations together, but marked CNA and NNOC's announcement of support for two pieces of legislation that they believe would, by establishing a single-payer healthcare sys- tem, solve many of the healthcare inequities the nurses encountered. SB 840, introduced by State Senator Sheila Kuehl, would create a single-payer healthcare financing system in California. HR 676, intro- duced by Congressman John Conyers, Jr., would do the same but for the whole country. Oakland mayoral candidate and former Con- gressman Ron Dellums also spoke at the event, saying that if higher government didn't act soon, he would push to establish health- care insurance for all Oakland residents. 4 C A L I F O R N I A N U R S E W W W . C A L N U R S E S . O R G A P R I L 2 0 0 6 Katrina RNs Reunite, Regroup to Bring Medicare for All NewsBriefs