Michael Moore, RNs, MDs and Chicago Patients Rally June 21 for Guaranteed Healthcare, March on Blue Cross/Blue Shield

Michael Moore, RNs, MDs and Chicago Patients Rally June 21 for Guaranteed Healthcare, March on Blue Cross/Blue Shield

Special Chicago Screening of SiCKO

'Scrubs for SiCKO' Campaign

CHICAGO, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Filmmaker Michael Moore will join with hundreds of members of a broad coalition of Chicagoland nurses, labor, and healthcare activist groups this Thursday at a rally demanding guaranteed healthcare for all patients, leading them on a march to a special screening of his stunning new documentary "SiCKO."

The rally, led by the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Program, and the Center for Justice and Democracy, will take place at Millennium Park and will include a march on the corporate offices of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, one of the companies exposed in the film for its heartless treatment of patients. After the rally, the group will attend a special screening of the film.

This event is among the first in a national effort, led by nurses and doctors, called "Scrubs for SiCKO" which will work to place a healthcare provider in every opening night of the film, with the goal of turning moviegoers into committed healthcare activists.

What: SiCKO Coalition Rallies for Guaranteed Healthcare

Where: Millennium Park, Chicago

When: Thursday, June 21

5:00 P.M. Rally at Ice Rink at Daley Centennial Plaza/Millennium
Park (near Blue Cross bldg.)

6:30 P.M. March on Blue Cross/Blue Shield (225 N. Michigan Ave.),
continue to screening

The "Scrubs for SiCKO" campaign, orchestrated by an unprecedented national coalition of national nurse and doctor groups, will distribute information and urge moviegoers to join the drive for a fundamental overhaul of the nation's dysfunctional healthcare system - as is so brilliantly described in "Sicko." They will urge the audience to help pass single-payer/Medicare-for-all-type legislation such as HR 676 now pending in Congress and several states, and make it a central focus of the presidential campaign.

As part of "Scrubs for SiCKO," a delegation of nurses and doctors from across the country embarked Monday on a tour of American cities beginning in New York to help energize the nurse grassroots.

"SiCKO" profiles a number of Americans with insurance who have been denied needed care by their insurance companies, describes how the insurance-based healthcare system is structured to keep it that way, and provides examples of other industrialized nations where insurance companies do not stand in the way of medical care.

The campaign will highlight the need for reforms that prevent insurance companies from denying care, and send a strong signal to politicians in Congress, state capitals, and the presidential race who are promoting insurance-based reforms.

HR 676 and similar bills in several state legislatures would have one public entity collecting and disbursing all revenues for care delivered by our current, mostly private hospitals, clinics, and doctors, similar to how Medicare works. The system is universal, assures comprehensive benefits, guarantees freedom to choose your provider, and controls costs. It also drastically curbs administrative costs -- and the waste caused by insurance company profits and paperwork.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: California Nurses Association

CONTACT: Shum Preston, +1-415-412-0825 or Charles Idelson,
+1-415-559-8991, both for California Nurses Association

Web site:

http://www.calnurses.org/

-------
Profile: intent