Nurses, Doctors Announce 'Scrubs for SiCKO' Campaign in Conjunction with Debut of Michael Moore's Film to Spark Genuine Healthcare Debate

Unprecedented National Coalition Will Work to Recruit Caregivers in 'SiCKO

Scrubs' to Attend Each Film Premiere Theater

Nurses and Doctors Begin Bus Tour Monday to Build Support for Campaign

    CANTON, Mass., June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Planning to spark a fundamental
 change in national healthcare politics, nurses from Massachusetts and
 throughout New England have joined an unprecedented national coalition of
 nurses and doctors organizations which today announced plans to rally
 around the openings of Michael Moore's "SiCKO" on June 29 to press the
 campaign for single-payer healthcare, guaranteeing comprehensive, quality
 healthcare with an expanded and improved Medicare for all. The Coalition is
 also planning a special preview screening, town hall meeting and press
 conference with Michael Moore as part of the national "SiCKO" bus tour,
 which will land in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday, June 22, beginning
 at 12 noon.
     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.
     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 single-payer/Medicare for all types of
 legislation such as HR 676 now pending in Congress and several states, and
 make it a central focus of the Presidential campaign.
     Nurses and doctors are serving as co-hosts of "SiCKO" premiers across
 the nation.
     Participating groups include the California Nurses Association/National
 Nurses Organizing Committee, Physicians for a National Health Program, New
 York State Nurses Association, Massachusetts Nurses Association, United
 Steelworkers (USW) Health Care Workers Council, Communication Workers of
 America, Health Professionals and Allied Employees/AFT, United Nurses and
 Allied Professionals (Rhode Island), United Nurses and Allied Professionals
 (Rhode Island), and the New England Nurses Association. The Canadian
 Federation of Nurses Unions is also working with the coalition.
     A delegation of nurses and doctors from across the country will embark
 Monday on a tour of East Coast cities to help energize the nurse
 grassroots. The tour will mostly take place in a colorfully wrapped bus
 encouraging people to see the movie and is being planned in conjunction
 with premiers of the film in New York, Washington DC, Chicago and New
 Hampshire.
            Tour Comes to Manchester New Hampshire Friday, June 22, 2007
       12 Noon - Screening of "SiCKO" at Palace Theater in Manchester, NH
     2:15 p.m. - Town Hall Meeting with Moore and RNs, Physicians, Patients
                3:30 p.m. - Press Conference with Michael Moore
     "SiCKO" profiles a number of Americans with insurance who have been
 denied needed care by their insurance company, 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, including SB
 755, the Massachusetts Healthcare Trust bill, will have one public entity
 collecting and dispensing 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.
 
 

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association