Bonnie Castillo, National Nurses United
When nurses stand up for Medicare for all, guaranteed healthcare as a human right — which some have dismissed as a “free pony,” despite its existence in every other major industrialized nation — we know that we are fighting beyond disdain, beyond political or corporate jargon, on the ground, for real patients whose names we speak, whose hands we hold, whose families we know, and whose very last breaths we have witnessed, often far too soon.
The GOP has tried and failed in recent months to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and in the resulting void, now is the time to stop all attempts to move backward or to stand still, and instead to move forward. To that end, this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders has unveiled new legislation, the Medicare for All act of 2017, to advance genuine universal care for everyone, regardless of ability to pay, gender, race, nationality, or background.
Nurses share why we need guaranteed access to healthcare, as a human right.
To emphasize why nurses across America stand with Sen. Sanders on this humane legislation, I’d like to take a moment to illuminate exactly what inspires nurses to fight. If we need to underscore the dire necessity for this bill’s passage, there are millions of stories to tell. Let’s zoom in on the last breath of just one patient whose final moments were filled with suffering, in a system that failed her.
“There are patients that I think of almost every day. One young woman still lives deep in my heart,” says National Nurses United member Melissa Johnson-Camacho, RN, who spoke out in Washington, D.C., in support of the Medicare for All Act. “Her cancer had metastasized and her lungs constantly filled with fluid. She needed to have that fluid drained in order to breathe, to survive.”
Noticing that her patients’ lungs never totally drained, Johnson-Camacho asked why, given that a medical intervention existed to clear them completely of fluid. The answer? Because she couldn’t afford it.
RN Melissa Johnson-Camacho speaks at the release of the Medicare for All Act of 2017.
“These bags are very expensive and her insurance did not cover the full cost. So she was never able to have her lungs fully cleared and was in constant distress and pain struggling to breathe,” says Johnson-Camacho. “To make matters worse, the insurance policy soon renewed, meaning a new annual deductible was in place. At that point she had to pay the full amount for her medications and supplies until the deductible was met.”
