PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 12, 2017 CONTACT: Terry Carter, (805) 312-0024

SEIU Local 121RN President Gayle Batiste, RN, CNOR, released the following statement on the President’s signing of his Executive Order:

“Make no mistake, the President’s Executive Order might as well be called an Execution Order. It is designed to kill the Affordable Care Act, plain and simple.

“This order will now allow deficient policies into our insurance markets, which become more unstable every day as uncertainty increases around the President’s tactics. These inadequate insurance plans are a disaster for both patients and any hope for improving our nation’s broken healthcare system. Companies that offer this kind of policy typically pocket half the money they collect. In other words, they’re designed to make CEOs and shareholders rich while denying all kinds of care and treatment. They call this ‘providing value’ because their plans are cheap.

“Yes, they’re cheap because they provide poor coverage.

“For those of us on the front line of patient care, we know what it was like before the Affordable Care Act, when those with pre-existing conditions had to make impossible choices: ‘Do I accept this life-saving treatment that I can’t afford without insurance? Or do I put food on the table for my family?’

“The cost of not having quality insurance when illness hits will again force many families to declare bankruptcy, just as they did before the ACA. This is truly a death sentence for our most vulnerable patients, those with chronic health problems, the elderly, children and the disabled.

“Just like the President’s new ‘beautiful’ tax proposals that will only benefit the super-rich, this cynical Executive Order does not offer ‘beautiful’ healthcare to our nation. These are steps backwards—the first backward steps toward unraveling the progress we’ve made.”

###

Service Employees International Union, Local 121RN represents 8,500 registered nurses and other healthcare professionals at 23 hospitals in Los Angeles and surrounding counties. This member-led organization is committed to supporting optimum working conditions that allow nurses to provide quality patient care and safety.