Real Patients Denied Real Healthcare Launches - Innovative, Heartwrenching Online Series Lets Patients Tell Their Stories of Insurance Industry Mistreatment and Abuse - Nurses and Patients Team up to Fight for Guaranteed Healthcare at “GuaranteedHealthcare.Org”

The National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association (NNOC/CNA) today debuts the first three webisodes of “Real People Denied Real Healthcare,” an online series featuring patients telling their stories of abuse and poor care at the hands of the insurance industry that dominates American healthcare today.  The series will be hosted at NNOC’s healthcare advocacy website www.GuaranteedHealthcare.org.  Patients will be able to visit the site to upload and share their own stories or videos of suffering at the hands of a healthcare insurance industry that makes money by denying care—not providing it.

Webisode 1 of “Real People Denied Real Healthcare” features David Welch, RN.  As a healthcare worker, Welch thought he’d certainly be able to purchase insurance, but he was denied because he had once has a small skin tumor removed from his nose.  Nathan Wilkes in webisode 2 had health insurance when his son was diagnosed with hemophilia; unfortunately, his carrier proceeded to raise rates and lower caps to the point that his insurance became unaffordable and inadequate.  Bonnie Drew in webisode three found that her carrier stopped paying her healthcare providers and basically forced her from the hospital before she was medically ready. 

The countless tragedies like these, and the patients who suffer them, are the reason that nurses and patients across the country are pushing for Guaranteed Healthcare, an assurance that all Americans can access the care they need and deserve.  Sick Americans, whether they have insurance or not, today have no guarantee of quality healthcare and it is time for that to change.

The National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association is an endorser of HR 676, Rep. John Conyers’ bill to establish single-payer financing in the healthcare system—a “Medicare for All” model that would eliminate the insurance industry middleman.  NNOC/CNA has also endorsed SB 840, Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s similar bill in California, which was vetoed by Arnold Schwarzenegger last year and will likely land on his desk again.

“America’s healthcare system is frail and getting weaker,” said Deborah Burger, RN, president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.  “The insurance industry makes billions while most patients can’t access basic care.  We can’t continue to pad their bottom line and take care of our patients.  We need guaranteed healthcare.”

NNOC/CNA is the nation’s largest union of direct-care RNs, with some 75,000 members in all 50 states.  Learn more at www.NNOC.net.