April, 03 2009, 02:27pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
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
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.
National Nurses United, with close to 185,000 members in every state, is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in US history.
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