Protect Medicare, Protect Nurses

by Kate Childs Graham  |  December 19, 2012

At the core of our campaign to protect Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security is this:

We want more jobs, not more cuts to programs that our communities rely on.

With the fiscal cliff looming, we must make it clear that cuts to Medicare would mean job losses for hundreds of thousands of nurses – many who are among AFSCME’s ranks. 

In a report released in September, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association projected that a two-percent cut to Medicare would mean more than 700,000 health care jobs lost through 2021.

Just days before the November election, AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Laura Reyes spoke to a group of nurses in California. There, she said, “Nurses do so much for the people in your community and you deserve so much respect, as professionals, and as proud union members.”

Protecting Medicare is one of many ways AFSCME intends to respect our nurses.  Call your representatives and urge them to save nurses’ jobs.