SEIU and Iowa for Health Care Help Raise Nurse Wages Statewide.
By Iowans for Health Care
SEIU Local 199 and Iowa for Health Care are holding a Press
Conference at the UI Hospitals and Clinics on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at
Noon. The Press Conference is to highlight a new bill that will bring
wage increases to nurses across the state. Speakers include SEIU Iowa
President Cathy Glasson, SEIU Iowa Political Director Sarah Swisher,
and State Senator Bob Dvorsky.
On
the last day of Iowa's legislative session, the Iowa House and Senate
passed a historic bill that earmarks this year's Medicaid provider
reimbursement increase to boost nurse wages across the state. This
one-percent Medicaid provider reimbursement increase could mean $4.2
million for Iowa's RNs, translating to hundreds of dollars per nurse.
Beginning
to raise nurse wages is a needed step toward solving the state's
drastic nurse shortage. At the rate we are going, Iowa is set to have a
shortfall of 9,100 RNs by 2020, leaving a 27 percent shortage. Passing
this bill proves that Iowa is ready to take on the issue that hits our
nurses the hardest: wages. Iowa's nurses are the lowest wage earners of
any state in the country, ranking 52nd in the country, also behind
Washington D.C. and Guam.
"While
hundreds a year is not a huge pay increase, this bill shows that nurses
and policymakers can initiate change that will lead to the recruitment
and retention of quality nurses in our state.I
am proud that SEIU led this charge and that members and not yet union
members are being rewarded," said SEIU Iowa president and national
nurse leader Cathy Glasson.
WHAT: Press Conference to highlight bill that will bring statewide raises in nurse wages.
WHEN: Noon-Tuesday, May 6, 2008
WHERE: Grassy area outside near Main Entrance of UI Hospitals and Clinics
WHO: Cathy Singer-Glasson, President of SEIU Iowa, RN
Sarah Swisher, Political Director of SEIU Iowa, RN
Bob Dvorsky, State Senator from Coralville
Pat Murphy, Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives
Iowa for Health Care is uniting nurses and other citizens who are concerned about the skyrocketing cost of health care.As
part of Americans for Health Care – a project of SEIU, the nation's
largest health care union – we are working to secure quality,
affordable health care for every man, woman, and child in America.
Coverage for Iowa's Children Within Reach! By Iowans for Healthcare
We're almost there!! With your support, Iowa will pass monumental health care reform this legislative session that will cover all of Iowa's uninsured children and expand coverage to adults.
Monday, the Iowa Senate passed a health care bill that provides the needed resources to cover Iowa's 45,000 uninsured children. The bill would also improve our state's overall health care by offering more options for adults to purchase coverage, encouraging the use of electronic medical records, focusing on chronic disease prevention, and allowing young adults to stay on their family's health insurance plans until they are 25.
The Iowa Senate has passed this bill, so we now need the support of the Iowa House of Representatives. Please email your State Representative today and ask them to support the Iowa Senate's new health care measure. Your help in this fight is imperative, your voice can help convince your State Representative that this is a change that Iowan's need.
Click on the "Take Action" button below to send a message to your State Representative. Or you can call the Iowa House of Representatives switchboard at: (515) 281-3221 and someone will kindly patch you through to your State Representative.
Thank you for your dedication to quality health care reform. The families that this new bill will cover will be forever grateful for your voice. This type of progressive change could never happen without the dedication and support of health care voters like you.
* Monday, the Iowa Senate passed a health care bill that provides the needed resources to cover Iowa's 45,000 uninsured children.
* The bill would also improve our state's overall health care by offering more options for adults to purchase coverage, encouraging the use of electronic medical records, focusing on chronic disease prevention, and allowing young adults to stay on their family's health insurance plans until they are 25.
* We need your support on HF 2539, as amended by the Senate. The families that this new bill will cover will be forever grateful for your vote. Icon
Subject: Please Support HF 2539 as Amended by the Senate
Dear [ Decision Maker ],
Monday the Iowa Senate passed a health care bill that very positively builds upon the excellent work of the Iowa House this session. I ask you today to please support HF 2539, as amended by the Senate, for the health of Iowans. As a Health Care Voter with Iowa for Health Care I stand up for the idea that everyone deserves access to quality, affordable health care. 50,000 Iowa children go everyday without health insurance, Iowa needs this reform. Please do the right thing.
Guest Blog: Sarah Swisher on the 2008 Legislative Session By Sarah Swisher The Iowa Legislature has begun what will prove to be a very exciting year for health care reform in the state. This Tuesday legislators presented a health care bill that would bring universal coverage to Iowa’s approximately 45,000 uninsured children.
This would be accomplished by expanding already existing programs to afford covering 25,000 more eligible kids, and providing subsidies to cover a remaining 19,000 in private plans.
This goal is to be reached within three years, but in order for it to reach the Governor’s desk it will need legislative support. SEIU and Iowa for Health Care are setting out to assure this support by holding its 5th Annual Lobby Day at the Capitol on February 14th. Here our Union Members and Health Care Voters will be urging state legislators to support this landmark bill and stand up for the children of this state that go everyday without the access to health care they need and deserve.
In 2007, the U.S. Congress failed to override Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP, or HAWK-I as it’s known in Iowa). This is just further proof that the people of this county cannot rely on the current administration to reform our broken health care system. If Iowa wants to see a positive future for its children, it must act on this bill. For just one child to not have access to a doctor when s/he is sick is too many, and the longer we wait, the worse it’s going to get.
Beyond this necessary health care bill, SEIU and Iowa for Health Care will also lobbying for nurse-friendly legislation.
Currently, many nurses in Iowa have no protection from employer retaliation when they speak out against actions or conditions in the workplace that are unsafe or illegal. Nurses should not be punished for advocating in the best interest of their patients, this is why we’ll be pushing for a Whistleblower Protection Bill that has been introduced by Rep. Mary Mascher.
Another major issue facing this state is nurse wages, where we rank 50th in the nation. Ranking last in nurse pay is unacceptable and action much be taken immediately to bring these valued bedside workers up to a competitive average wage. Governor Culver vowed to push for legislation to boost these wages in his Condition of the State address, after SEIU expressed its concern for this issue. We can except a bill to be presented by March 1st.
So, with our help, 2008 should turn out to be the year of health care reform, and the year of the nurse for the state of Iowa. And, like everything in politics, there is power in numbers. So if you’d be interested in helping make 2008 a landmark year for these issues by joining our Lobby Day, please give us a call at 319.338.0353, or email us at iowaforhealthcare@gmail.com.
Sarah Swisher is a Registered Nurse, Political Director of SEIU Local 199, Director of Iowa for Health Care, and currently sits as a member on Iowa’s Nursing Taskforce and Legislative Commission on Affordable Health Care for Small Businesses and Families, working to bring much needed health care reform to the state of Iowa.
Whether it’s health care,
the cost of education, our environment or global trade, Corporate America is holding
us all hostage to the almighty dollar. Greed continues to trump need as corporations
make record profits while more and more Americans fall into poverty every year.
Congress allows industry to write policy, and legislators don’t even read the
bills they enact. The average person would lose their job for gross negligence.
The pharmaceutical/insurance lobbies make billions on the grief of others, systematically
denying people essential treatment or drugs in order to save a buck. Half of
our taxpayer money goes to the Pentagon who “loses” over a trillion dollars and
“it’s nothing but a thing” yet we
have to beg to fund health care for our children. Agri-Business dominates at the
expense of our environment and health as 85% of our food is now genetically
modified, our meat is ridden with hormones and antibiotics, and pesticides have
permeated the water table. Global trade agreements allow corporations to
exploit for profit with no safeguards in place for workers or the environment.
It is our moral imperative
to stand up and say no more! John Edwards seems to be the only candidate that
understands that we have to make an aggressive push to take our country back –
the key word being “take”. While it is important to be able to bring everyone
to the table, we can’t continue to allow Corporate America to eat all the food.
Which comes down to,
follow the money…
Edwards and Obama are my
two top picks but there are some important distinctions to be made here. I think
Obama is awesome and I will support him whole
heartedly if he gets the Democratic nod, but as an activist, and more
importantly as a mother and your sister, there is way too much at stake in this election, not
only for our country but for the planet. Corporate America
will never give up their stranglehold on America or the rest of the world so
we must TAKE IT from them! There is no negotiating a moral standard… and frankly, that’s
what this election is about.
There are two main issues
that concern me about Obama; the fact that he voted for the Peru Trade
agreement (more of the same of what ails us), and more egregiously, the fact that he is promoting nuclear energy. Coincidentally,
Obama has accepted a lot of money from Exelon Nuclear and only stopped taking
corporate monies this past year once he decided to run for President. I commend
him for that recent decision but I am horrified that he is promoting nuclear power.
The current energy bill before Congress may have 10 billion dollars allocated
toward renewable energy, and that rocks, but if you look at the whole pie, it’s
too little too late! 25 billion is allocated for guaranteed loans to build new
nuclear sites and billions more for coal fired plants. I mean, this is what I
am talking about people… Corporate America writing OUR policy! Do ya’ll
remember all the hoopla about storing the nuclear waste at YuccaMountain?
Do you want that in your backyard? Is it OK as long as it’s stored in someone
else’s backyard (out of sight, out of mind)? Do you really think our Earth Mother will be served by that? We need to save Her in order to save ourselves. Almost everything we do generates some
form of waste by-product. Instead of adding to it, especially nuclear waste, we need to use our
considerable ingenuity to invent our way out of this mess. It is our only true
hope. What we absolutely cannot afford
is more of the same… business as usual.
Corporate America has had the resources and the necessary information to create new technologies for decades. Rather than doing the right thing, and truly be leaders of innovation, much of their resources have been spent preventing said technologies from entering the marketplace because, God forbid, that could hurt their bottom line. If their shareholders weren't so blinded by their own greed, they would be able to recognize the incredible opportunity that is presenting itself NOW. Corporate America and our elected officials could simply CHOOSE to lead this necessary technological revolution, but it remains to be seen.... so it's up to us.
Controversial
Rabbi Michael Lerner to Speak at Spiritual Progressives Conference Nov. 3rd in the Quad Cities
By James Lee
As
the Election Season closes in on the Quad Cities, people are looking at the
vast challenges facing our country and questioning how
individual citizens can make a difference. According to
national polling, over 70% of Americans feel that our nation is on the "wrong
track".Organizers of the
Spiritual Progressives Conference feel the answers to many
of our concerns and worries are rooted in our values, faith and spirituality.
Quad
Cities Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) in conjunction with Churches
United of the Quad Cities, Democracy for America–Quad Cities,
Davenport Unitarian Church,
Edwards Congregational-UCC, First Congregational-UCC, Network for Spiritual
Progressives, and a host of other supporters are
sponsoring a Spiritual Progressives Conference on November 3, 2007. The theme of the conference is: Living our Faith:
Integrating Values and Politics in the Heartland.
PURPOSE OF THE CONFERENCE
The purpose of this conference is to promote the voice of progressive
people into the national conversation on issues of values, faith and spirituality.
The conference is
designed to dig beneath the surface of controversial national issues &
public policy debates to get to the core of how we decide what makes our
society a healthy place to live.
It is our hope that the conference will help the public better
understand how to more effectively integrate progressive values with political
action that can create positive change in our nation.
Conference organizers assert that progressives have
been the social innovators who have initiated changes in our society that have
given us more freedom, liberty, and equality. Progressives believe in
continually improving our society in order to assist as many people as possible
to achieve a better life for themselves, their families and the community as a
whole.During this time of national
drift when confusion seems widespread over what America represents and truly
believes, progressive people must amplify their voices in the public conversation
on what we value as a nation.
We reject the tactic of using religion and spiritual traditions
to be a divisive force in our nation; pitting one group of Americans against
another group.We believe that ethics and morality cannot be claimed
as the property of a single religion or political group, but must be understood
in the context of furthering the well being of all humanity, present and
future.
The conference will cover three main
areas:
1) Promoting a conversation on Progressive Values, Faith & and Spirituality
2) Organizing Progressives for political action
3) Creating healthy personal & inner lives for progressive people
The key-note speaker,
Rabbi Michael Lerner, will examine the question of how our values are translated
into political action. Rabbi Lerner is an internationally
renowned social theorist, theologian, editor of Tikkun magazine, and author of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our
Country from the Religious Right. He has a PhD from the University of California,
Berkeley and is
the founder of the Network for Spiritual Progressives.
Faith, values, and spirituality play an important role in responding to the many challenges we
face in our country today. The primary focus of
this conference will be to explore how our values, faith, and
spirituality can direct political action and transform our nation and our world. In so doing, this conference will be
addressing the most serious issues facing our
communities such as affordable, quality health care, the war, and global warming
to name a few.
Conference
workshops include topics such as "Challenging
the Misuse of God and Religion by the Religious Right", "Global Consciousness
and Ecological Sanity", "Our Common Values" and "Grounding Justice Work in
Spiritual Practice".
To learn more about other workshops which will be presented at this conference,
click here. To download the flyer to print (double-sided to conserve paper) go to our home page: www.qcprogressiveaction.org.
The Conference commences at 9:30am with a spiritual reflection on the state of
our world.Rabbi Michael Lerner will
speak at 10:15am.Workshops will continue throughout the day.
At 2:30pm Rabbi Lerner will be part of a panel discussion with local leaders on
the state of values and spirituality in our nation. Lunch will be served and
the conference will come to a close at 3:30pm.
This
event is open to the public; seating is limited.To Register, contact PACG at 563-676-7580 or go to our website for more information: www.qcprogressiveaction.org.
Event times and places
Interfaith
Service
The
conference begins with an Interfaith Service led by Rabbi Lerner on Friday evening,
November 2nd, 7pm at the Unitarian
Church, 3707 Eastern Avenue, Davenport, Iowa.
Spiritual
Progressives Conference
On
Saturday morning, November 3rd, the Spiritual Progressive Conference
will be held at the First Congregational Church-UCC, 2201 Seventh Avenue, Moline, IL 61265. Registration
starts at 9:30AM.
Book Signing with Rabbi Lerner
Saturday evening, November 3rd, 5:30pm at Borders Bookstore, 4000 E 53rd St in Davenport.
The
gap between the President's priorities and your priorities has never
been more clear. The President just decided that 3 million poor
children shouldn't receive healthcare. It's crazy. At the same time
he's asking Congress for $200 billion more to continue his war in Iraq,
he's vetoing a healthcare program for needy kids here at home that
costs just a small fraction of that.1
But for
the first time in seven years, the President might not get his way. Now
it's up to Congress to stand up for their constituents and override the
President's veto.
This isn't just about the 3 million kids who desperately need this
program, this is about the direction of our country. It's time for
Congress to take a stand and send a message to this President and his
Administration that they will not continue to allow our most basic
values to be swept aside. This is the moment that we stand up and say:
"no more." We can win this fight, but it's going to take all of us.
Start by telling your Members of Congress to override the President's
veto today.
We've also helped organize, along with our friends
at MoveOn and our new partners at USAction, emergency rallies all over
the country tomorrow. Show up and show your support, not just for
children's healthcare, but for the values that make this country great.
Click here to find a rally near you.
Let's get our priorities straight,
Ben Kroetz TrueMajorityAction.org Online Organizer
President Bush signed our prescription drug
safety bill. The new law will require drug makers to tell the whole
truth about the safety and effectiveness of their drugs by making them
disclose the results of clinical studies. It also will increase
resources for the FDA to monitor the safety of drugs on the market.
Paul
Brown, our advocate in Washington, D.C., told the media, "This bill is
the right prescription for improving the safety of our medicine. We
applaud Congress for putting it on the President's desk and commend him
for signing it into law."
Thank you for the emails you sent in
mid-summer and again this fall. Those emails - tens of thousands in
total - helped us overcome strong opposition from the drug industry.
Here's a brief excerpt from the Associated Press news story
BUSH SIGNS DRUG SAFETY BILL INTO LAW By Andrew Bridges
WASHINGTON
(AP) - The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday gained broad new
powers to ensure the safety of prescription drugs used by millions of
Americans under a bill President Bush signed into law.
At its
core, the new law renews for five years programs to collect fees from
drug and medical device manufacturers. The industry money accounts for
about one-quarter of the FDA's overall budget, defraying the cost of
reviewing products that need agency approval.
Members of
Congress, acting in the wake of the withdrawal of the painkiller Vioxx
three years ago, seized on the bipartisan legislation as a vehicle to
reform the FDA's handling of drug safety.
In part, the
legislation shifts more of the FDA's attention from experimental drugs
pending approval to those already are on the market, and gives the
agency more power to act when worrisome problems emerge.
"It really represents an important addition to the FDA's authority," said FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.
It
gives the FDA the power both to require drug companies to do further
study on the safety of medicines, if needed, and to mandate new label
warnings when problems do appear. The FDA also gains the ability to
fine companies to ensure compliance with those two new authorities. The
legislation further requires companies to publicly release results of
all clinical trials that show how well their approved drugs performed.
Not yet approved drugs could be subject to the requirement later.
*IBLTV is a group of citizens from the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids area who are concerned about the decline in the quality of local television. Fight local media consolidation, as it leads to an unaccountable medium that enriches itself while disregarding the need to serve the public good.
*The rational counter to 'The Point,' 'The Counterpoint' critiques and corrects the daily editorial by Sinclair Broadcasting's corporate vice president, Mark Hyman, that is broadcast on all Sinclair-owned television stations across the country
