I read today that Senator Ted Kennedy's office is working on Barack Obama's universal health care policy.  Well, I have an idea to suggest.

One way for Senator Barack Obama and the Democratic Party to help save American's money for their health care, is by making sure that each city has at least one prompt care clinic for patients to go to, for non-major emergency health issues like kids ear aches, rashes, chest colds, sinus infections, cuts, broken fingers or toes, etc...

I recently made an embarrassing mistake which really gave me something to think about.  I was out to lunch with a few colleagues, when one person told me he wanted to talk some politics with me.  This person and I spoke frequently about politics, and we were both Hillary supporters.  A third person chimed in asked me if I was a Republican, and I was a little taken aback by that.  The idea makes my skin crawl.  Of course, I said "Not in this lifetime!". He then told me that he was, and I should consider voting for John McCain.  That one stopped me in my tracks, because he's black.

In an extraordinary convention just concluding in Puerto Rico, here's what you didn't hear from Andy Stern's paid PR blitz.  SEIU was under siege throughout by protest encampments of the popular Puerto Rican Teachers' Union, responding to SEIU's raid of the island's largest  union-- during a strike to improve horrific educational conditions.  

Inside the convention, to the detriment of the overall labor movement,  Stern successfully squashed  the internal dissent by SEIU's democracy activists, thereby further concentrating power in himself.  The CEO model.

And in an extraordinary development, Stern announced that  SEIU is basically doing away with labor reps in favor of outsourced call centers...which makes sense, in that if you sign no-strike promises to your employer, why would you need to mobilize your members?  

There's more!  SEIU is continuing its war against state and national RN unions by now picking up John McCain's frame of attacking "government-run healthcare" as their latest salvo against the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (AFL-CIO).  If anyone doubted SEIU's willingness to sell out genuine healthcare reform in a second, there it is.

Details below...

Attendees of the SEIU Convention in Puerto Rico are facing a protest encampment and multiple pickets by Puerto Rican teachers, parents and schoolchildren, furious at Andy Stern and his  North American union for their efforts to bust a historic strike and take over the independent Puerto Rican Teachers Union (FMPR--Fdederacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico).  

Labor Notes is on the scene:

 The Puerto Rican convention center hosting the Service Employees International Union's big confab is kind of an eerie cross between Superman's Fortress of Solitude and a prison in some isolated part of rural California. The entire complex was fenced in or gated off, with police and security guards posted at every entrance.  Apparently the looming threat is the Puerto Rican teachers, whose union is known by its Spanish acronym FMPR. About 100 teachers gathered outside the convention center Saturday morning to protest SEIU's raid on their union (read the full story from the February Labor Notes). In January the FMPR was decertified by the Puerto Rican government for authorizing a strike. The decertification coincided with SEIU's announcement that they were affiliating a rival teacher union and making plans to scoop up Puerto Rico's 40,000 teachers.

Number of uninsured U.S. young adults grows

Among the findings in a truly depressing new study, over 15% of Americans lack health insurance, and 30% of 19-29 year olds lack health insurance. It is shameful that a nation as wealthy as the U.S. leaves so many people without health care coverage. Think about these numbers. This is not some abstract issue. This is a real problem that affects people you know.

Some of the "highlights" from the report:

13.7 million people aged 19 to 29 had no health insurance, either public or private, in 2006.

The government estimates that 47 million people have no health coverage in a country of about 300 million.

The U.S. uninsured rate rises dramatically at age 19 -- from 12 percent of children up to age 18 up to 30 percent among men and women aged 19 to 29, according to the report.

Hispanic and black young adults were at greater risk of being uninsured than whites, the report showed. While 23 percent of whites ages 19 to 29 lacked insurance, the figure was 36 percent of blacks and 53 percent of Hispanics.

We need universal health coverage now. Your fellow Americans are literally dying because they lack access to health care. Our health care system has become a huge strain on the finances of individuals, businesses, and the U.S. economy. We cannot afford to wait another decade or presidential term while our nation's health care crisis worsens every day.

Today, May 14th, is the 119th anniversary of the passing away of Mary Seacole, the Mother of Social Justice nursing.

RNs now celebrate Mary Seacole Day as part of National Nurses Week--and as the day we honor the social justice aspect of the work of nurses.   Mary Seacole remains an important inspiration for the national nurses movement being built by CNA/NNOC (California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee), which focuses on improving patient care and safety in hospitals and on bringing this country the guaranteed, single-payer health care that our patients deserve.  

...cross-posted at the Guaranteed Healthcare blog...

SEIU 1199, the New York-based local closely associated with Int'l Pres. Andy Stern, has decided to put their muscle behind Republican NY Senate President Joe Bruno and his Republican caucus, and apparently committed to working to ensure that Democrats do not regain control of the chamber.  The Albany Times Union reports:

The union will provide resources exclusively to the GOP this fall, the person said.  Union leaders, joined by key health care industry figures, met Friday with Sen. Bruno to discuss how to help the GOP hold control.

The Reps hold the Senate in this blue state by a 32-30 margin, which is very bad news for a wide range of progressive causes, especially healthcare.  This SEIU-Repbulican deal is instructive for those following the debate within the labor movement between Andy Stern's SEIU and the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, much of which turns on the political profiles of the unions and on CNA/NNOC's work towards guaranteed healthcare.  

A Cure Within Our Lifetime: Hillary unveils her plan to find a cure for breast cancer within our lifetime on The Ellen DeGeneres Show today. Hillary’s plan would provide $300 million a year in increased funding for breast cancer research at the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

And this cannot come too soon.  The numbers are quickly increasing all over the world, even in countries in Asia where traditionally they had the lowest incidence of Breast Cancer, they are seeing increases.  Still not anywhere as close as in the United States, where even Asian women who move to the United States increases their chance of getting Breast Cancer by 80 percent.  In our country, moving from 1-8 women to 1-7 to develop the disease.  We need to find a cure for this disease as soon as possible.