Guaranteed Healthcare

CARSON CITY, Nevada -- If you've never traveled with RNs on a mission, you're missing one of the great shows of commitment to a better and more just nation that you'll ever see.  Launched this morning in Reno, nurses of the Nevada Nurses Organizing Committee boarded a bus for an 11-stop road show and set off to tell fellow Nevada citizens about what will happen with healthcare under each of the presidential candidate's healthcare plans.

At each stop, like the Comma Coffee shop above where nurses chatted with patrons, voters learned where RNs stand:  firmly in support of healthcare for every American -- everybody in and nobody out.  Malinda Markowitz, president of NNOC, spoke with customers at the coffee shop while a local musical trio -- complete with a washboard and homemade lyrics -- played in the background and lamented the state of rural healthcare clinics.  The lead singer told the group he knows the clinic is going through lay-offs and folks are worried about accessing care. 

Another patron at the Comma Coffee shop talked about how much it would cost to add her husband to her healthcare policy... "It would make my premiums more than $1,000 a month," she told NNOC's Jill Furillo, " So I told him he better not get sick."

Nurses shared their report card for the candidates where they rate Sen. Obama's plan better that Sen. McCain's plan because Obama improves access to care while McCain's plans to tax employer based healthcare benefits and may cause as many as 20 million more people to lose access to coverage and care.

Out on the sidewalks, citizens welcomed the chance to talk with the nurses on a cool fall day when most of the close-by state offices were closed for the holiday.  One young man became angry when he thought the nurses were representing the health care industry -- "No, I don't want to talk to you.  i owe the healthcare industry thousands..."  But he stopped and listened when told the nurses are advocating HR676, the National health Insurance Act -- single payer healthcare for all.

The road show will undoubtedly bring some surprises -- as the nurses take their message far and wide.  But the trust patients feel for nurses clearly softened even the most campaign-message-weary.  Citizens know who speaks the truth and who has a hidden agenda.  And during these last weeks of what has been a two-year long presidential campaign cycle, nurses break through the din of attack ads and economic shell shock with a clear, clean message:  healthcare is a basic human right that we can and should provide one another.  It's in the nation's best interests.