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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2009
3:27 PM

CONTACT: California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC)

CNA: Chuck Idelson 510-273-2246 or 415-559-8991
CSEA: Carolyn Constantino 408-821-9545

Hundreds of Healthcare Activists to Rally in Los Angeles Outside White House Forum on Healthcare, April 6

Healthcare Grassroots Wants a Place at the Table for Single-Payer/Universal Healthcare Reforms

WASHINGTON - April 3 -
WHAT:
Hundreds of nurses, physicians, school employees, clergy, seniors, patients, and healthcare activists will rally on Monday outside the Los Angeles White House Forum on Healthcare Reform to strongly urge a real debate over single-payer/universal healthcare and any proposed bailouts of private health insurance corporations.  

The activists will gather around a giant table to symbolize the rightful "place at the table" for the kind of Medicare-for-All or single-payer/universal healthcare reforms that would provide every American with the national, non-profit, comprehensive health coverage we need.  Rally participants will send the message on postcards to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  

WHO:
A broad coalition of healthcare reformers brought together by the Leadership Conference on Guaranteed Healthcare, California Nurses Association (CNA), California School Employees Association (CSEA), Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), Healthcare Now, and Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).  

WHEN: Monday, April 6th - Rally @ 8:30 a.m., Program @ 9:00 a.m.

WHERE: The California Endowment, 1000 Alameda, Los Angeles

WHY: "Nurses and patients demand a place at the table for guaranteed healthcare systems on the single-payer model, because we know that only this reform will nurse our healthcare system back to health," said Geri Jenkins, RN, Co-President of CNA. "On the other hand, forcing people to buy private insurance products, or taxing their healthcare benefits, the kind of ideas offered by Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McCain last year, would amount to a massive bailout of the health insurance corporations, which we can't afford and they don't deserve."  

"The president clearly recognizes that now is the time for bold solutions to our most serious problems, including healthcare. We are urging him to allow single-payer/universal to be a part of the debate, because we believe it is the best way we can provide comprehensive healthcare to the American people at a reasonable cost," said CSEA President Rob Feckner.

"A single-payer system is the best and most equitable means to provide all people with the healthcare they need, while exercising good stewardship of our resources," said Rev. Rick Schlosser, Executive Director of the California Council of Churches.

###
The California Nurses Association, and its national arm, the National Nurses United, is one of the nation's premiere nurses' organizations and health care unions. One of the fastest growing health care organizations in the U.S., CNA/NNU presently has 80,000 members in 50 states, representing nurses at scores of hospitals, clinics, and home health agencies.


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