The advert headline blared: “if he were anyone else he’d be dead.” He is Dick Cheney, age 67, Vice President of the United States, with a bionic reconstructed heart with built-in defribulator to maintain a regular heartbeat. The Vice President joined the government healthcare program in 2001 when he became a federal employee. Had he switched jobs in the private sector, he would be uninsurable under most policies due to a pre-existing condition. After 5 heart attacks, a shunt, surgeries and being rushed to the hospital twice in the last seven years for heart-related conditions, he would be dead. Watch the Bill Moyers report on Journal here.

One could assume this was just another political attack ad during this Bataan death march of a political campaign. Indeed the ad was placed by the California Nurses Association and it was impressive to read their history and see they are not just for Californians. The CNA are organising nurses in 42 states to improve the quality of patient care and raise the debate on the issue of patient’s right to treatment against bottom line focused HMO’s.

We hear mostly about the 47 million Americans. There is a special group of 2 million federal workers who have the Mercedes Benz of health insurance systems. They include all members of Congress, the Executive and Judicial and their employees and they ALL must be treated, can change doctors, cannot be denied treatment because of a pre-existing condition and can have whatever specialist they need whenever they need it. The government pays 70% of the cost of any treatment and the divide between rich and poor in the health system grows daily because the mostly fight against the rest of us receiving similar treatment and that is where the CAN leads the fight.

CNA has been a thorn in many a politician’s side, most notably the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger who upon taking office tried to roll-back their hard won patent limits under Governor Gray Davis. He arrogantly urged a public audience, while the cameras were running, to ignore a group of protestors whom he jokingly called “the special interests” because, “we don’t focus on special interests in California.”  His approval rating dropped during the furore from 60%+ to 40% almost overnight. He was forced to eventually maintain the limits won by the CNA.

When a 17-year old patient required a liver transplant to survive, the CNA took up the cause to fight on his behalf against an insurance giant to get the procedure improved. They won against the insurer the right to have this several hundred thousands of dollars operation. Sadly the patient died that evening before the operation.

The USA does not have a healthcare system, it has a healthcare industry and 20,000 people with healthcare coverage each year die because that coverage refuses to take care those they insure and often goes against the express wishes of doctors and nurses who put themselves on the line as the last line of defence for a patient, often at risk to their own jobs.

The CNA does not believe any healthcare worker should be put in that position and gains its support in so many states not just for the wage and benefit fights any union is expected to wage for its members but the California dispute was targeted against The Governators plan to increase their hard fought win to reduce the number of patients each nurse had to care for to allow them to do their job and raise the standard of care for the patient.

Something this son of a nursing clinical instructor for 38-years can easily get behind.

To be continued…