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NNU’s Historic March on Wall Street

More than a thousand RNs and other activists marched on Wall Street Wednesday, chanting “Wall Street got bailed out! We got sold out!”

They stood on the steps of Federal Hall across from the New York Stock Exchange and held signs – “Take it Back! Tax Wall Street” and “Heal America! Tax Wall Street” – so crowds of curious passersby got the message.

It’s time to make Wall Street high rollers who created our economic crisis pay its fair share.

Hundreds of nurses from across the country gathered in the heart of our nation’s financial center on June 22, an International Day of Action, to make that message crystal clear.

“It’s time for their shared sacrifice. They haven’t had any of that. They have been making billions and trillions in profit and they are not giving anything back to our community,” said Deborah Burger, RN and member of the National Nurses United Council of Presidents.

Nurses take on Wall Street

The protest is part of the National Nurses United’s Main Street Contract for the American People’s campaign, which aims to reclaim an economy with good jobs at living wages, healthcare for all, quality education, good housing, protection from hunger, a safe environment, and a secure retirement for everyone.

The mainstream media is ignoring the real stories — the stories of people suffering from budget cuts, homelessness, and lack of healthcare.

Representatives from other community and labor organizations stood with the nurses Wednesday to show their support.

Nurses taking on Wall Street

“We are calling for a more fair and just economy,” said Karen Higgins, RN and member National Nurses United Council of Presidents.

That’s why NNU, with the support from dozens of community and labor organizations, such as the AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, and Transport Workers Union Local 100, are calling for a Wall Street tax on financial transactions.

“It’s very American…Just like working people pay taxes on all of their purchases. These corporate speculators who buy and sell and buy and sell our country should pay a minimum tax on that,” NNU executive director RoseAnn DeMoro explained to the crowd. “A very minimum tax could amount to at least $350 billion every year that can go back to our communities and go back to jobs and go back to healthcare.”

Similar events, called by the European Trade Union Confederation, were taking place in 35 other countries in support of a similar tax there. The nurses led the protest in America.

The hour-long rally ended with songs of solidarity. The nurses and fellow community activists left Wall Street — waving their signs and yelling “This is what democracy looks like!”

Bystanders joined in the chant as the sea of red scrubs moved down the street.

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* Listen to a recent interview with RoseAnn on the NationConversations
* Read an article about today’s Wall Street protest by Labor Notes
* See photos from today’s Wall Street protest on Flickr
* Join the Main Street Contract for the American People campaign

Donna Smith, a community organizer for National Nurses United, wrote the following for the Common Dreams blog:

Guarding Health is Not Their Business, But It is Ours
By Donna Smith

If for one moment anyone has the notion that for-profit health insurance companies are in the business of guarding the health (or wealth) of policyholders, that notion ought to be quickly dismissed in favor of the truth. For-profit health insurance giants guard profits.

I arrived outside the WellPoint annual shareholders meeting in a hotel in Indianapolis yesterday to be greeted by more guards (and some armed) than I have seen surrounding President Obama at times. Apparently just the prospect of having some of the legal shareholders question the business practices and ethics of the WellPoint board and CEO Angela Braly was very scary for the company and its elite leaders.

Some of the shareholders have in recent years put forward a resolution supporting WellPoint’s return to its non-profit roots. After last year’s meeting, the resolution earned 9.6 percent or 30,000,000 shareholder votes. The current leadership doesn’t like that nor do they like the efforts of the shareholders who keep challenging them.

One shareholder asked Ms. Braly at yesterday’s tightly controlled and guarded meeting, as a sort of speakers’ “shot clock” counted down her speaking time, “Tell me, Ms. Braly, could you please explain what you do that warrants a salary ($13.5 million annually) that is more than 375 public school teachers in Indiana earn?” Braly’s answer was a classic. No shot-clock running for the CEO as she explained that the board sets her compensation and it has to be competitive with the other comparable giants in the insurance industry. It is a breathtaking demonstration of greed and hubris.

Read the rest of the article by clicking here.

It’s telling that Braly would be so blasé in defending her outrageous salary. It’s even more telling that Wellpoint overseers felt the need to surround the building with armed guards. All that’s missing is a moat and a court jester. These people are completely detached from the hardships they are inflicting on their customers. The spectacle of unabashed greed and sense of entitlement that Donna Smith describes here demonstrates how out of whack our country’s priorities have become. Our society now values a small group of profiteers at the expense of the rest of us who are barely scraping by in a difficult economy. Braly and her fellow robber barons produce nothing of value while shamelessly gouging millions of hardworking Americans. Health insurers are simply leeches, and they must be immediately removed from our healthcare system before they suck all of us dry.

If you haven’t spent much time in the hospital, you’ve probably never thought about the difference between non-profit and for-profit facilities. Yet for those in the health care industry, and who have medical conditions that need constant care and the larger community, the difference between the two can be substantial. As a nurse or health care professional, these are issues that may affect how you practice, where you want to work and what kind of facilities are available where you live – so it’s important to know as much as you can. As many communities are divided between those who support and those who oppose for-profit health care, you’ll need to know the facts to make an informed decision. Here are some to get you started, letting you know the pros, cons and stats of for-profit hospitals.

1. Over 17 percent of hospitals are for-profit. In 2002, that number was only around 10%, demonstrating a marked growth in the for-profit health care industry over the past decade, growth that’s expected to continue over the next five years.
2. For-profit hospitals often focus on high-end, high-revenue treatments. Visit a for-profit hospital and you’re likely to see a gleaming cardiac wing, top-notch brain surgeons and fancy CT scanners. What you are less likely to see are family planning services, emergency rooms and psychiatric care. These services have a low rate of return on investment and may actually cost rather than bring in money, so many private institutions opt out of providing them. Of course, there are some for-profit hospitals that provide the bulk of these services (and others) to their local communities.
3. More for-profit hospitals engage in morally questionable practices like patient dumping. A study found that for-profits were twice as likely to dump emergency room patients onto other facilities as not-for-profits. Patients who do not have insurance or whose plans will not cover emergency care were more likely to be transferred, often in a manner that violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. Not-for-profits certainly aren’t in the clear here, but the difference between the two is striking.
4. For-profit hospitals are buying out may non-profits. In communities around the nation, many not-for-profit hospitals are struggling to stay afloat. Rising costs, a heavy patient load and outdated equipment make some simply not economically viable. For-profit medical groups are often stepping in and buying these hospitals. While some community leaders are relieved that the hospitals are being saved, others worry that it will be at a cost to the economically disadvantaged in the community. With more hospitals on the auction block every day, the effect of this change is likely to become clear in the coming months and years.
5. It’ll cost you more to go to a for-profit hospital. Not necessarily because they just want to charge you more, though profit margins certainly are an issue. For-profit hospitals don’t get the tax breaks that not-for-profits do, meaning they have to charge more to make up for it. How much? Expect to pay around 19% more for a visit to a for-profit than a not-for-profit.
6. For-profit hospitals have a higher death rate, on average. While the results of the study have been hotly contested, a group of Canadian researchers found that for-profit hospitals have a slightly higher death rate — around 2% higher. While the study found a difference, researchers were unable to pinpoint just what was causing the disparity, but some think it might have to do with for-profits cutting corners in order to generate more revenue. Of course, that number doesn’t mean every for-profit has a higher death rate — it is an average– some may have a much lower chance, while others are much higher.
7. A woman is 17 percent more likely to have a C-section at a for-profit hospital. While the number of C-sections performed nationwide at all hospitals has skyrocketed in the past decade, a fact many see as a direct threat to the safety of both women and their children, a California study found that women are even more likely to get a C-section at a for-profit hospital. The reason isn’t hard to figure out. A surgical birth costs twice as much as a vaginal one, and more C-sections means more profit. Additionally, once that baby is born, it’s more likely to end up in a pediatric ICU, whether it needs it or not, at a for-profit.
8. You’re more likely to get diagnosed with costly conditions at a for-profit. And that would be fine, provided that was really what was ailing you. A study in a German medical journal found that many for-profits may be guilty of up charging. They compared admissions of patients with respiratory infections and pneumonia, two conditions that can be pretty hard to tell apart from a medical standpoint, but with one usually paying about $2000 more to the hospital. Over the past decade, for-profits diagnosed the more expensive condition at rates much higher than that of not-for-profits. Lawsuits have since reduced this phenomena, but more recent data shows that for-profits still routinely cost Medicare more than their non-profit counterparts.
9. For-profit hospitals may have an advantage when it comes to efficiency. There is one area in which for-profits often excel. Because they’re watching the bottom line, for profits are better at reducing waste, streamlining their processes and running a more efficient, tightly managed facility. Of course, there are exceptions, and studies have found that it depends more heavily on ownership than on profit status whether or not a hospital will be efficient.
10. For-profit hospitals may stretch staff more thinly. Because they’re focused more operating efficiency, for-profits often have lower staffing ratios. This may not mean much for patients, as these staff members are usually compensate by being more productive (most patients often rate than standard of care similarly.) Yet it can make a difference in terms of stress and job satisfaction for those who are working in a for-profit institution. A study found that hospital workers are more likely to feel valued as a person, receive praise and feel their job is important at not-for-profits than at for-profits.
11. Dementia patients are more likely to be over treated at a for-profit. The practice of tube-feeding patients with advanced dementia has been widely criticized by the top medical journals and isn’t medically necessary in most cases, yet doctors are still using it as a treatment for dementia patients. While it occurs in for-profits and not-for-profits alike, patients at the former are 33% more likely to be given a feeding tube. It is even more common at large hospitals in either category, with a whopping 50% greater chance of feeding tube insertion in hospitals with over 300 beds.
12. Patients rate higher loyalty and satisfaction in for-profit ERs. While some for-profits might shy away from these low-return facilities, those who do have them tend to have higher rates of patient satisfaction than their not-for-profit counterparts. Some suggest that the reason for this may be due to for-profits having access to greater capital, meaning they can more easily invest in updated equipment and services. Additionally, not-for-profits are often chronically overburdened with patient volume and suffer from short staffing, factors that could reduce overall satisfaction
13. For-profit hospitals rate consistently lower when delivering care for these common conditions: congestive heart failure, heart attack and pneumonia. If you’ve got any of these conditions, or suspect you might, you may be better off heading to a not-for-profit if you have a choice. A 2006 study by the Harvard Medical School determined that patients with these conditions were more likely to get high-quality care diagnosis and treatment for these conditions as not-for-profits– a fact they suggest is due to increased staffing and more technology.
14. For-profit hospitals have lower costs per patient. Whether this is for better or worse for patients is up to you to decide, but Census data in 2008 recorded that the average total cost per patient per stay is about $7,985 at a for-profit hospital compared to $10,081 at a not-for-profit. This could be due to greater cost-cutting measures, efficiency or differences in staffing at for-profits versus their counterparts.
15. The impact of for-profit hospital conversion on the community is varied. Some may see for-profit hospitals taking over not-for-profits as a blessing, others as a curse, but the facts don’t have much to lend either side. Studies conducted by the Boston University School of Public Health found that some for-profits dramatically increased care to the poor while others decreased it, sometimes as much as 40%. The study found that, on average, there were no long-lasting changes in care between the two types of hospitals, meaning a lot of worries communities have about for-profit health care could be unfounded.

We’ve had some interesting discussions on Facebook about the generation gap between nurses and how it can get in the way of teamwork as well as questions about the kinds of important things nursing school can’t teach. We love Janet Izzo’s newest article for Nursetogether.com, “The Responsibility of Mentorship” written to honor National Nurses Week.

Janet talks about how “each and every nurse is a teacher in one way or another” and that the one’s who were willing to share their expertise and experiences with her as a young nurse made a huge impact. She starts by saying,

“During Nurses Week 2011 let us rededicate ourselves as nurses who are passionate about what we do and passionate about the lives entrusted to us. With those lives, those patients we serve, we have experiences to share and stories to tell. That fact alone qualifies us and holds us responsible as educators and mentors to other nurses.”

Read the whole article on NurseTogether.com.

Jane Izzo was a guest on Nurse Talk and is the author of Hotel Hennepin, which chronicles her experiences working in a large county hospital in the heart of Minneapolis. The stories Janet relates in Hotel Hennepin are poignant, sad and hysterically funny, but all are amazingly true! Click the audio player below to listen to the show where Janet and her book were featured.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:50 — 37.0MB)