PRESS ADVISORY
New York, N.Y. — June 15, 2007 — Registered nurses, doctors, and other healthcare providers will be out in force Monday evening, June 18, when Michael Moore’s new film, SiCKO, premieres in New York City at the Ziegfeld Theatre.
More than 100 members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), Physicians for a National Health Program (PHNP) NY Metro Chapter, the New York City Central Labor Council, and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee will arrive in front of the theater at 6:30 p.m. on the “Scrubs for SiCKO” bus. The bus will travel on to SiCKO premieres in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and Manchester, N.H.
The nurses’ group, all wearing “Scrubs for SiCKO,” will gather outside the theater to talk about the need for universal health care both in New York and across the nation. They believe the message of the film — that health care in the U.S. is inefficient, inadequate, and unfair — will help build widespread support for a single-payer national health insurance plan.
“Health care is a right, not a privilege,” said Verlia M. Brown, RN, a critical care nurse at Kings County Hospital and president of NYSNA. “To make sure that every American has access to care, we must abandon a system controlled by for-profit, private insurance companies. We need a single-payer plan that covers everyone.”
Oliver Fein, MD, chair of the PNHP NY Metro Chapter and Professor of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Public Health at the Weill Cornell Medical College, said, “We’ve waited too long for a single-payer national health insurance system that provides comprehensive, high quality health care to everyone. We call on our political leaders to place the needs of the American people above those of the insurance and drug companies that have until now blocked real health reform.”
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of CNA, noted that SiCKO is “not just an indictment of an indefensible healthcare industry in the U.S. It’s an answer to those who think we can fix the problem by tinkering with an unconscionable system that puts us further in thrall to those who created the crisis.”
NYSNA, PNHP, and CNA all support H.R.676, a bill now before Congress that would establish a single-payer health insurance plan for all Americans. NYSNA also has testified at the State Capitol on behalf of the New York Health Plan (A.7354/S.3107), legislation that would create a statewide single-payer insurance system.
Contact:
Nancy Webber, NYSNA Communications Director; 518-782-9400, ext. 223
nancy.webber@nysna.org
Joanne Landy, PNHP Metro Chapter; 212-666-4001; cell: 646-207-5203
jlandy@igc.org