PRESS RELEASE from Obama for America

For Immediate Release:
March 14, 2012

OBAMA FOR AMERICA LAUNCHES NURSES FOR OBAMA

CHICAGO – Obama for America announced today the launch of Nurses for Obama, a campaign initiative designed to mobilize nurses across the country.

As we approach the two-year anniversary of President Obama’s landmark health reform, the Obama campaign is engaging our supporters to talk about how health reform has already changed lives for the better. Because nurses are on the frontlines of our health care system, they are involved in every step of the way from prevention to patient care and have seen firsthand how health care reform has already benefited their patients.

Nurses for Obama will equip volunteers with resources and effective ways they can be advocates for health care reform in their communities. Grassroots volunteers will organize neighborhood by neighborhood, and block by block talking to their friends, family and co-workers – holding nurse-to-nurse trainings, planning sessions, house parties and phone banks.

Nurses know better than anyone why health insurance reform was so desperately needed. They see firsthand the heartbreaking consequences when insurance companies defer treatment or deny coverage; they know that insurance premiums and prescriptions can consume a family’s entire budget. Every day they interact with patients who couldn't afford to see a doctor and had to go to the emergency room for something as simple as a sore throat.

“I’ve been a nurse for nearly 20 years, working everywhere from a 20 bed hospital on the Navajo reservation to a world class hospital in Pennsylvania. One thing is consistent – access to health care saves lives.  Before health care reform, we had a true emergency in healthcare.  Americans were forced to disregard their doctors and nurses’ advice when their insurance companies denied the necessary care, and this resonates very personally with me as this is how my mother-in-law died. By giving the power back to patients and their health care providers, millions of American families are breathing a sigh of relief having access to healthcare,” said Pennsylvania nurse Michelle Boyle.


President Obama knows nurses play an essential role in our health care system, and thanks to the new health care law, nurses are gaining new tools and resources to help them help their patients. 

For additional information about Nurses for Obama, please visit
www.barackobama.com/nurses. Also be sure to check out the campaign’s new online tool highlighting health reform’s benefits.

 

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CONTACT:

Obama for America Press Office