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National Alliance for Retired Americans (www. retiredamericans.org) reports that President Bush says he will try to squeeze more than $70 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over the next five years. However, the budget documents show that the actual figure is much larger: $101.5 billion, according to the New York Times.
In his State of the Union Address, President Bush outlined a health care program
that would include taxing the health benefits of those who get them from employers.
Retirees from coast to coast will have to mobilize if they expect to stop these
cuts in their vital benefits.
At the Texas state level, the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) is trying to get a Hospital Patient Protection Act passed in the legislature. They have set a lobbying day in Austin on February 21. Spokesperson Rossia Avery came to the retiree luncheon at UAW Local 848 on February 10 to explain the desperate situationin Texas hospitals.
Avery talked about her 28 years as a nurse. She said that nurses presently work 12-hour shifts for as many as 6 days in a row. She said they have far too many patients assigned to them. Nurses who complain, or who stand up for adequate patient care, are threatened with firing! Texas, she said, had no unions to defend nurses.
While hospitals are making "tons of money," they continuously overload
the nurses with more patients than they can care for adequately. Avery said
that the California Nurses Association backed a similar bill that passed in
California. She urged all retirees to talk to their state representatives about
passing the Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2007. Registered nurses are backing
it. She added, "We have tolerated a whole lot, but now is the time for
us to speak up!"
Registered Nurse Rossia Avery
--Gene Lantz, TARA Communications Director