St. Louis Nurses Announce 'Scrubs for SiCKO' Campaign in Conjunction with Debut of Michael Moore's Film - June 29

St. Louis Nurses Announce 'Scrubs for SiCKO' Campaign in Conjunction with Debut of Michael Moore's Film - June 29

National Campaign Features Unprecedented Coalition of Healthcare Provider Groups Working for Guaranteed Healthcare

ST. LOUIS, June 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A group of Saint Louis nurses from the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association is planning their "Scrubs for SiCKO" campaign event June 29, the opening night of Michael Moore's new movie "SiCKO." This national campaign is lining up nurses and doctors for opening-night showings of the movie in theaters across the U.S. to talk to moviegoers about how to solve the healthcare crisis -- and get the insurance companies, who are the source of a systemic denial of care, out of the way. The St. Louis event will feature a press conference before the film, in addition to the nurse outreach after it.

What: St. Louis RNs Host "Scrubs for SiCKO" Event
When: Friday June 29, 10:00 am press conference before the 12 noon
showing
Where: Chase Park Plaza Cinema, Lindell @ Kingshighway

The National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association is conducting the campaign with an unprecedented coalition of nurses and doctors organizations from coast to coast and is working on behalf of legislation, HR 676 in Congress, that would establish a single-payer type system which guarantees universal, comprehensive healthcare in the form of an improved and expanded Medicare for all. At last count, more than 10,000 nurses nationally have signed up for the effort.

While every screen around the country will have nurses in attendance, St. Louis is among nearly 100 cities that will also feature events leading up to the showing.

For more information visit http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/sicko .

Background:

The caregivers 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 guaranteed healthcare on single-payer/Medicare-for-all model, including legislation such as HR 676 (Conyers) now pending in Congress and several states, and make it a central focus of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Calling it the "Scrubs for SiCKO" campaign, organizers will recruit registered nurses and doctors to every theater in the nation where "SiCKO" opens to ensure that caregivers -- in SiCKO scrubs -- are in the audience.

Nurses and doctors have been seizing the "SiCKO" moment at events across the nation. The first public major screening of the movie came at a NNOC/CNA rally in California. Following that, a delegation of nurses and doctors from across the country spent last week on an East Coast bus tour to help energize the nurse grassroots. Along the way, they testified before Congress about the need for urgent, systemic change, and unveiled a new data study uncovering the financial ties between healthcare corporations and presidential candidates.

Participants on the bus tour included the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Program, New York State Nurses Association, Massachusetts Nurses Association, United Steelworkers (USW) Health Care Workers Council, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, United Nurses and Allied Professionals (Rhode Island), Communications Workers of America, and the New England Nurses Association. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions also participated.

"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. Similar versions are succeeding in nearly every other industrialized nation in the world.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: California Nurses Association

CONTACT: Bill Gallagher, +1-818-355-8691, or Shum Preston,
+1-510-273-2276, both for California Nurses Association

Web site:

http://www.calnurses.org/

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