Unprecedented National Coalition Will Work to Recruit Caregivers in 'SiCKO
                Scrubs' to Attend Each Film Premiere Theater
   Nurses and Doctors Begin Bus Tour Monday to Build Support for Campaign
 
    CANTON, Mass., June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Planning to spark a fundamental
change in national healthcare politics, nurses from Massachusetts and
throughout New England have joined an unprecedented national coalition of
nurses and doctors organizations which today announced plans to rally
around the openings of Michael Moore's "SiCKO" on June 29 to press the
campaign for single-payer healthcare, guaranteeing comprehensive, quality
healthcare with an expanded and improved Medicare for all. The Coalition is
also planning a special preview screening, town hall meeting and press
conference with Michael Moore as part of the national "SiCKO" bus tour,
which will land in Manchester, New Hampshire on Friday, June 22, beginning
at 12 noon.
    Calling it "The Scrubs for SiCKO Campaign," organizers will recruit
registered nurses and doctors to every theater in the nation where "SiCKO"
opens to ensure that caregivers -- in SiCKO scrubs -- are in the audience.
    The caregivers will distribute information and urge moviegoers to join
the drive for a fundamental overhaul of the nation's dysfunctional
healthcare system -- as is so brilliantly described in "SiCKO". They will
urge the audience to help pass single-payer/Medicare for all types of
legislation such as HR 676 now pending in Congress and several states, and
make it a central focus of the Presidential campaign.
    Nurses and doctors are serving as co-hosts of "SiCKO" premiers across
the nation.
    Participating groups include the California Nurses Association/National
Nurses Organizing Committee, Physicians for a National Health Program, New
York State Nurses Association, Massachusetts Nurses Association, United
Steelworkers (USW) Health Care Workers Council, Communication Workers of
America, Health Professionals and Allied Employees/AFT, United Nurses and
Allied Professionals (Rhode Island), United Nurses and Allied Professionals
(Rhode Island), and the New England Nurses Association. The Canadian
Federation of Nurses Unions is also working with the coalition.
    A delegation of nurses and doctors from across the country will embark
Monday on a tour of East Coast cities to help energize the nurse
grassroots. The tour will mostly take place in a colorfully wrapped bus
encouraging people to see the movie and is being planned in conjunction
with premiers of the film in New York, Washington DC, Chicago and New
Hampshire.
           Tour Comes to Manchester New Hampshire Friday, June 22, 2007
      12 Noon - Screening of "SiCKO" at Palace Theater in Manlchester, NH
    2:15 p.m. - Town Hall Meeting with Moore and RNs, Physicians, Patients
               3:30 p.m. - Press Conference with Michael Moore
    "SiCKO" profiles a number of Americans with insurance who have been
denied needed care by their insurance company, describes how the
insurance-based healthcare system is structured to keep it that way, and
provides examples of other industrialized nations where insurance companies
do not stand in the way of medical care.
    The campaign will highlight the need for reforms that prevent insurance
companies from denying care, and send a strong signal to politicians in
Congress, state capitals, and the Presidential race who are promoting
insurance-based reforms.
    HR 676 and similar bills in several state legislatures, including SB
755, the Massachusetts Healthcare Trust bill, will have one public entity
collecting and dispensing all revenues for care delivered by our current,
mostly private hospitals, clinics, and doctors, similar to how Medicare
works. The system is universal, assures comprehensive benefits, guarantees
freedom to choose your provider, and controls costs. It also drastically
curbs administrative costs -- and the waste caused by insurance company
profits and paperwork.
 
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