Worsening US health care crisis during pandemic prompts strikes and protests by nurses over staffing
A recent study shows that the United States places dead last among 11 high-income, industrialized countries in the organization and delivery of health care for its residents. This situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is ripping off the remaining tattered Band-Aids from an already deplorable health care system.
The Commonwealth Fund compared health care in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The study ranked the countries in access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity and health care outcomes. The US came in last in every category but care process, which includes measures of “preventive care, safe care, coordinated care, and engagement and patient preference,” where it placed second.
The US’ last-place standing in relation to access to care, equity and health care outcomes are the product of the subordination of all aspects of the health care system to private profit. The delivery of health care and access to prescription drugs are all beholden to the profiteering of the giant health care chains, pharmaceutical companies and the insurance industry.
The US is the only one of the countries studied that does not provide what the study terms “universal coverage.” While the health care systems in none of the other countries has anything in common with genuine socialized medicine, the US is the only one of the 11 that makes no pretense of providing universal coverage.
The already appalling state of US health care has worsened over the course of the pandemic, affecting not only patient care and outcomes but the working conditions of nurses and other health care workers. One of most common issues for nurses in hospitals is the lack of safe staffing ratios, which are central to providing adequate care to patients and to ensure the safety of both staff and patients.
These conditions have prompted an uptick in nurse contract struggles. Nurses have also left hospitals seeking other nursing positions, including as traveling nurses, or left the nursing field entirely in search of better pay and working conditions. While most of the nurses’ struggles have been limited short strikes or protests, at every turn the nursing unions have isolated these actions and worked to betray nurses and capitulate to the hospitals’ demands.
The most significant of these struggles is the ongoing five-month strike of 700 nurses at St. Vincent hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts over safe staffing ratios. The strike is now in critical danger of being sold out by their union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA). When the strike began in March, about 100 nurses crossed the picket line. St. Vincent and its multibillion-dollar owner Tenet claim that around 200 nurses have crossed the picket line.
After five days of secret negotiations with executives of the hospital, the MNA bargaining committee signed off on a tentative proposal that does not meet the nurses’ central demand of guaranteed safe staffing. The MNA bargaining committee was only prevented from carrying through with this betrayal and ending the strike by Tenet’s refusal to remove the scab replacements it hired during the strike.
More than 830 workers at three Tenet-owned hospitals in Southern California last month authorized a walkout over staffing, pay, benefits and pandemic-related safeguards. However, the National Union of Healthcare Workers negotiated contracts for the hospital workers to prevent a strike, refusing to mobilize these workers to back the nurses at St. Vincent who are facing betrayal by the MNA.
In Chicago, 300 nurses at the Community First Medical Center went on a one-day strike July 26, while 1,400 nurses from USC Keck & USC Norris Cancer Hospital in Los Angeles went on a two-day strike July 13-14 to voice their protest over unsafe staffing ratios.
Last month, nurses at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania voted to authorize a strike after six months of negotiations. Nurses are frustrated that hospital management has failed to respond to their request for measures to deal with the nurse staffing crisis.
“A nursing crisis has been happening before the pandemic,” Kayla Rath, a postpartum nurse, told a rally last month. “It’s just gotten much worse. I know many nurses that left because it was too stressful and we haven’t replaced them.”
West Penn is part of the Allegheny Health Network, which comprises several facilities. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) already represents some 4,000 workers at Allegheny Health, and the union has made clear that it will not seek to unite these workers in a common struggle.
In Connecticut, a strike set to begin June 4 was called off at the 11th hour by SEIU District 1199 New England. This was the third time in a month that the SEIU called off a strike in the state by nursing home and group home workers at the last minute.
Nurses at Mc Laren Macomb Hospital in Michigan had also voiced their opposition to unsafe staffing ratios and were ready to go on strike, but were presented with a rotten contract sanctioned by Local 40 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). When its contents were first made public, the WSWS wrote that “items listed are vague and indicate that there are no meaningful enforcement mechanisms in place to specifically guarantee that McLaren will abide by the staffing obligation.”
A nurse at McLaren informed the WSWS that nothing has changed since then, saying, “Still the same terrible staffing issues. And to make it worse, staffing did not know we ratified our contract that had new nurse-to-patient ratios, so they keep trying to staff us to the old matrix.”
Many hospitals were and are still unprepared to deal with the influx of patients due to COVID-19, and conditions are getting worse in hospitals with each passing day the Delta variant is allowed to rampage through the population, with some states in even worse straits than others.
A recent study by WalletHub compared the 50 US states and the District of Columbia across 44 measures of health care costs, accessibility and outcomes. Louisiana and Arkansas, now experiencing more COVID-19 hospitalizations than ever before, ranked the second and third worst states for health care.
Florida ranked 14th worst in this same study, and due to the major influx of hospitalizations is expected to have critical staff shortages in 70 percent of hospitals, according to the Florida Hospital Association. In Nevada, ranked the ninth-worst state, cases are also rising with each passing day. On August 4, nurses protested at Mountain View Hospital in opposition to unsafe staffing ratios.
The deepening crisis of the health care system as it intersects with the pandemic is creating worsening conditions for nurses and other health care workers and propelling them into struggle. This is epitomized by the struggle at St. Vincent Hospital. The ongoing isolation of their strike on the part of the MNA and AFL-CIO is a deliberate policy. The unions long ago abandoned the defense of the workers and have spent decades securing pro-company agreements, while channeling workers’ political opposition behind the Democratic Party.
To be successful, the strike at St. Vincent and at hospitals across the country requires the building of new organizations of struggle—rank-and-file committees—unifying their fight across the US and internationally, in opposition to the pro-corporate trade unions.
Serious scientists and medical professionals know that global measures must be enacted to eradicate the pandemic and put an end to preventable deaths. The WSWS calls on health care workers to join in the SEP today and fight to put an end to a health care and political system that places profit over lives.
Overall, immigrant households consume 33 percent more cash welfare than American citizen households and 44 percent more in Medicaid dollars. This straining of public services by a booming 44 million foreign-born population translates to the average immigrant household costing American
Hundreds of vaccinated students test
positive for COVID-19 at Duke
University
After hundreds of vaccinated students and staff tested positive for COVID-19 at Duke University, the university administration is implementing stricter measures to stop the spread of the virus.
Although Duke boasts the highest vaccination rate among major North Carolina universities and is requiring all students and staff to receive their shot by October 1, last week 349 students and 15 employees tested positive for the virus. All but eight were fully vaccinated. These cases have arisen in the context of vaccination rates for students standing at 98 percent, and 92 percent for faculty. Students are also tested weekly and those who are unvaccinated are required to take a test twice a week.
In an attempt to control the growing outbreak, the administration is placing new limits on student activities. In addition to the previous mandate requiring masks in classrooms and indoor settings, all students must now wear masks outdoors, while at the gym and generally around other students. All indoor seating for dining has been moved outside, with more than 25 tents set up across campus for meals. Faculty have also been given the temporary option of shifting classes online for the next two weeks due to many students missing class because of quarantine.
According to the Raleigh News and Observer, Duke administrators announced the new guidelines in an email saying “this surge is placing significant stress on the people, systems and facilities that are dedicated to protecting our health, safety and the ability of Duke to fulfill its educational mission, particularly our isolation space for on-campus students who test positive.”
One year ago, while classes were fully remote, only 241 students and staff tested positive for coronavirus during the entire fall semester, in contrast to the 349 positive cases just this past week. Such a substantial increase in transmission is occurring under conditions where universities and schools are attempting to reopen under normal conditions, all while the Delta variant continues to spread throughout the population, causing more and more breakthrough cases and filling up ICU units across the state.
In fact, more than 3,700 people are currently hospitalized across North Carolina. At Duke University Hospital and Duke Health Raleigh, the ICUs are currently at capacity. At Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, two ICU beds are available. In the larger Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle region, there are a cumulative 12 remaining ICU beds available to treat critically ill patients.
Over the month of August, 788 North Carolinians died from COVID-19, making it the deadliest month of the pandemic since February, even though vaccines have become widely available. The state also reported over 7,200 new cases on Wednesday, with a 13.8 percent positivity rate. Of the cases that have been sequenced, 97 percent are Delta, according to the latest report from the CDC.
Other universities across the state have also begun to reopen for full in-person instruction during August, though most are not requiring students or staff to be vaccinated. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, from August 23 to August 30, 158 students and 16 employees tested positive. At UNC Chapel Hill, 230 students tested positive in the last week, and 468 were reported in the last month.
At Appalachian State University, where only 51 percent of students and 88 percent of staff are vaccinated, 216 positive tests have been reported. Though university testing is limited and these figures may not represent the full extent of the spread, the positivity rate has surged to 10.5 percent this past week, the highest it has been since the beginning of the pandemic.
In response to this, more than 200 faculty have petitioned to move all possible courses online until vaccination rates increase and COVID-19 transmission rates decrease.
Across the nation, students and faculty are facing similar conditions, with University of Michigan faculty circulating a similar petition that has received over 700 signatures from graduate students, lecturers and staff.
State and Local Politicians Move to Grant Coronavirus Relief to Illegal Aliens
By Matthew Tragesser
ImmigrationReform.com
https://www.immigrationreform.com/2020/04/08/illegal-alien-benefits-states-immigrationreform-com/
Study: More than 7-in-10 California Immigrant
Welfare
More than 7-in-10 households headed by immigrants in the state of California are on taxpayer-funded welfare, a new study reveals.
The latest Census Bureau data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that about 72 percent of households headed by noncitizens and immigrants use one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare programs in California — the number one immigrant-receiving state in the U.S.
Meanwhile, only about 35 percent of households headed by native-born Americans use welfare in California.
All four states with the largest foreign-born populations, including California, have extremely high use of welfare by immigrant households. In Texas, for example, nearly 70 percent of households headed by immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare. Meanwhile, only about 35 percent of native-born households in Texas are on welfare.
In New York and Florida, a majority of households headed by immigrants and noncitizens are on welfare. Overall, about 63 percent of immigrant households use welfare while only 35 percent of native-born households use welfare.
President Trump’s administration is looking to soon implement a policy that protects American taxpayers’ dollars from funding the mass importation of welfare-dependent foreign nationals by enforcing a “public charge” rule whereby legal immigrants would be less likely to secure a permanent residency in the U.S. if they have used any forms of welfare in the past, including using Obamacare, food stamps, and public housing.
The immigration controls would be a boon for American taxpayers in the form of an annual $57.4 billion tax cut — the amount taxpayers spend every year on paying for the welfare, crime, and schooling costs of the country’s mass importation of 1.5 million new, mostly low-skilled legal immigrants.
As Breitbart News reported, the majority of the more than 1.5 million foreign nationals entering the country every year use about 57 percent more food stamps than the average native-born American household. Overall, immigrant households consume 33 percent more cash welfare than American citizen households and 44 percent more in Medicaid dollars. This straining of public services by a booming 44 million foreign-born population translates to the average immigrant household costing American taxpayers $6,234 in federal welfare.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
Pelosi Uses August’s Disappointing Job Growth to Pitch ‘Build Back Better’ Spending
By Craig Bannister | September 3, 2021 | 11:52am EDT
“Today’s job report is further evidence of the need to Build Back Better for our economy,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday, reacting to August’s steep drop in job growth from its year-long trend reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
As the BLS reported in its monthly Employment Situation Summary, August’s 235,000 job growth was less than half the average monthly job gain recorded so far this year, coming in at just 235,000. To-date in 2021, the U.S. economy has added an average of 586,000 per month:
“Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 235,000 in August, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. So far this year, monthly job growth has averaged 586,000. In August, notable job gains occurred in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, private education, manufacturing, and other services. Employment in retail trade declined over the month.”
“Today’s job report is further evidence of the need to Build Back Better for our economy,” Pelosi said in a statement commenting on the jobs report.
However, President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan isn’t just a short-term solution, it should continue for “years to come,” Pelosi said:
“The Build Back Better Act is what is needed to meet families’ needs, both during the pandemic and for years to come.”
It “will be transformational for families,” Pelosi predicted in her statement:
“Today’s job report is further evidence of the need to Build Back Better for our economy. As the delta variant continues, decisive action is needed to ensure that the economic gains forged under President Biden – including four million jobs created – are sustained and shared by all.
“The Build Back Better Act is what is needed to meet families’ needs, both during the pandemic and for years to come. We must Build Back Better so more women and parents can participate fully in our economy – including through historic investments in child care, paid family leave, free universal pre-school and home-based care. The Build Back Better Act will be transformational for families: cutting costs for child care, health care and prescription drugs, education and other priorities for families, delivering one of the largest tax cuts ever for workers and families and creating millions of good-paying jobs.
“Congressional Democrats and President Biden will Build Back Better – with more jobs, cut taxes and lower costs for all.”
As CNSNews.com has reported, Pelosi is struggling to even gain support from some Democrats for her $3.5 trillion spending package, even though she is threatening to hold a Senate-passed infrastructure bill hostage until the House first passes her budget bill.
120 Migrants, Plus Children, Found in Abandoned Trailer in Texas near Border
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents and local police officers discovered 120 migrants locked inside an abandoned tractor-trailer rig late last month. The group included five unaccompanied minors.
Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak tweeted photos showing a large group of migrants found in an abandoned tractor-trailer in Laredo, Texas, on August 28. Border Patrol agents and officers from the Laredo Police Department teamed up to rescue the 120 migrants locked inside the trailer.
The discovery began when a Laredo police officer found an abandoned tractor-trailer near Bob Bullock Loop and Crepusculo Drive. The officer called for assistance from Border Patrol.
A search of the trailer revealed 120 migrants trapped inside, officials stated. An immigration interview identified the migrants as citizens of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua. The agents identified five of the migrants as unaccompanied minors from Mexico and Honduras, officials stated.
Laredo North Station received information about a group of migrants marching through a ranch north of Laredo. The agents responded to the area and found the group of migrants. The agents identified one of the migrants as an unaccompanied minor from Mexico.
Officials coordinated with the consulates of Mexico and Honduras to return the children to their respective countries.
“The Laredo Sector Border Patrol cannot stress enough the dangers and risks that undocumented individuals, especially unaccompanied minors, place themselves in when commencing their illegal journey into the United States,” Laredo Sector officials said in a written statement. “Without a legal guardian, these minors subject themselves to human smugglers who place them in increased danger during the high temperatures of summer and will abandon them at the first sign of danger in remote areas.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
Biden Doesn't Know Where Those Illegal Alien Trafficked Kids He Released Went
Maybe they were safer in those "cages"?
The U.S. government has lost contact with thousands of migrant children released from its custody, according to data obtained by Axios through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Why it matters: Roughly one-in-three calls made to released migrant kids or their sponsors between January and May went unanswered, raising questions about the government's ability to protect minors after they're released to family members or others in the U.S.
Shockingly, releasing children being trafficked for migration purposes to their traffickers or associated contacts, wasn't a good idea.
But that doesn't mean that the Biden administration is about to stop doing it.
There was a reason that children being trafficked across the border were being detained. It was not only for our safety, but for theirs.
"This is very dismaying," said Mark Greenberg, who oversaw the unaccompanied minors program during the Obama administration and was briefed on Axios' findings. "If large numbers of children and sponsors aren’t being reached, that’s a very big gap in efforts to help them."
But the good news is immigration policy got owned and you guys are closer to flipping red states? As a famous Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times journalist once said, "You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs."
The data also indicates calls aren't happening with the frequency they should. Between President Biden's inauguration and the end of May, HHS discharged 32,000 children and teens — but the government placed fewer than 15,000 follow-up calls, according to the FOIA response.
Why bother? Just write off a few $800 million contracts with contractors to "care for them".
And AOC is available to come and cry at a parking lot in your area.
Study: Over Half of Migrants Are on American Taxpayer-Funded Welfare
More than half of the nation’s non-citizen population — including legal immigrants, foreign visa workers, and illegal aliens — use American taxpayer-funded welfare after arriving in the United States, a new analysis reveals.
Research by Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Steven Camarota finds that about 55 percent of non-citizen households in the U.S. use at least one form of welfare compared to just 32 percent of households headed by native-born Americans.
Camarota’s research analyzes the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation data from 2018, showing that 49 percent of households headed by foreign-born residents, including naturalized American citizens, use at least one welfare program.
In 2017, economist George Borjas called the U.S. immigration system “the largest anti-poverty program in the world” at the expense of America’s working and middle class.
(Center for Immigration Studies)
Specifically, foreign-born residents used vastly more Medicaid compared to native-born Americans and food stamps. For example, while 33 percent of foreign-born residents use Medicaid, just 20 percent of native-born Americans do so.
Likewise, while 31 percent of foreign-born residents are on food stamps, only 19 percent of native-born Americans use the program.
Camarota’s research reveals that even after years and years of residing in the U.S., foreign-born resident households continue to use high levels of welfare.
About 44 percent of foreign-born residents who resided in the U.S. for 10 years or less use at least one form of welfare. Roughly 50 percent of those who resided in the U.S. for more than 10 years are on welfare.
When naturalized Americans are excluded from that count, the level of welfare use rises significantly for those who have resided in the U.S. for a while. For example, among non-citizen households who resided in the U.S. for 10 years or less, 40 percent use welfare. For those in the U.S. for more than 10 years, about 62 percent are on welfare.
The latest data comes after similar numbers were released in March 2019 that showed that, in 2014, non-citizen households used nearly twice as much welfare as native-born Americans.
Currently, there is an estimated record high of 44.5 million foreign-born residents living in the U.S. This is nearly quadruple the immigrant population in 2000. The vast majority of those arriving in the country every year — more than 1.5 million annually — are low-skilled foreign nationals who go on to compete for jobs against working class Americans.
At current legal immigration levels, the Census Bureau projects that about 1-in-6 U.S. residents will be foreign-born by 2060 with the foreign-born population hitting a record 69 million.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
Armed Human Smuggler Arrested in Texas near Border
Border Patrol agents in South Texas teamed up with state and local law enforcement to interdict several human smuggling operations, one ending with an armed suspect.
Falfurrias Border Patrol Station agents assigned to the interior checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281 in Brooks County, Texas, on August 31 observed a brown Ford Explorer approaching for inspection, according to the Rio Grande Valley Sector. Officials reported the driver appeared nervous and referred him to a secondary station.
During inspection, the agents questioned the occupants of the vehicle and determined they were illegally present in the United States. They arrested the migrants and the driver. During an inspection of the SUV, agents found two semi-automatic pistols.
Later that day, Weslaco Station agents received information about a black sedan near the Rio Grande in Donna, Texas. Agents responded and observed the vehicle heading north, away from the river. The sedan quickly made a U-turn and drove back to the river where the occupants jumped out and fled into the brush.
Agents apprehended four migrants. They observed two people making their way across the Rio Grande back to Mexico.
McAllen Station agents attempted to stop a suspicious vehicle just north of Edinburg, Texas. The driver failed to yield when the agents attempted a traffic stop. The pursuit ended near San Manuel, Texas. The agents arrested the driver and five “noncitizens” in the vehicle.
Border Patrol agents responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle inside a ranch near Encinal, Texas, on August 31. As agents approached the pickup truck, it failed to yield and fled.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and officers from the Encinal Police Department joined in the pursuits the vehicle fled east on Highway 44. DPS troopers deployed tire deflation devices, bringing the pursuit to a safe conclusion.
The occupants of the vehicle fled into the brush. Agents apprehended six Mexican nationals who are illegally present in the U.S.
Vehicle pursuits are becoming more frequent in South Texas as smugglers become desperate to move their cargo into the U.S. interior. Chases are becoming more commonplace as far as 200 miles inland, Texas sheriffs say.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.
Surveillance Drone Leads to Apprehension of 30 Migrants near Border in Texas
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents utilizing Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) detected a group of 30 migrants preparing to enter the United States illegally. Ground-based agents later intervened.
Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak tweeted an image captured by an sUAS flying along the Texas-Mexico border. Drone operators observed video showing a group of 30 migrants attempting to enter the U.S. from Mexico.
Agents later arrived on the scene and took the migrants into custody.
Border Patrol agents have increased their use of technology like the sUAS aircraft to enhance their ability to detect and apprehend illegal border crossings in remote areas.
In April, Del Rio Sector agents utilized sUAS technology to apprehend more than 450 migrants in a two-week period, Breitbart Texas reported.
A video tweeted by Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin Skero shows a group of migrants running through the brush. The group appears to squat down to avoid detection by Border Patrol agents.
With the use of the sUAS drones, monitoring agents are able to clearly see the location of the hiding migrants and direct ground teams to make the arrest.
The operation of sUAS vehicles is not unique to South Texas Border Patrol operations. Earlier in February, sUAS pilots in the Yuma Sector utilized the drone’s technology to locate three migrants hiding in the thick brush along the roadway, Chief Patrol Agent Chris Clem tweeted. The pilot directed the Border Patrol agent directly to the migrants’ hiding spot where he was able to place them in custody.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s Sunday-morning talk show, What’s Your Point? Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, Parler @BobPrice, and Facebook.
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