Nurses set to strike over insurance at 5 Minnesota hospitals

[Omaha Steve]

Source: W Post-AP

By Steve Karnowski | AP
MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of nurses at five Minnesota hospitals are scheduled to go on strike at 7 a.m. Monday, Labor Day, in a dispute over health insurance, workplace safety and staffing levels. Here’s a look at some of the issues:

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WHICH HOSPITALS ARE INVOLVED?

They’re all part of Minneapolis-based Allina Health — Abbott Northwestern and the Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, United in St. Paul, Unity in Fridley and Mercy in Coon Rapids. About 4,800 nurses at those hospitals are represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association, the union that called the open-ended strike.

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WHAT’S THE MAIN DISPUTE?

Health insurance.

In a move Allina estimates would save $10 million a year, it wanted to switch nurses from their union-only health plans to ones that cover all other Allina employees, meaning nurses would pay lower premiums but have higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.

FULL story at link.


A nurse adds her signature to scores of signatures that fill a large poster of the Minnesota Nurses Associations as community, labor leaders and faith-based groups gather at Stewart Park Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016 in Minneapolis for a rally to show support for Allina Health nurses who are scheduled to go on strike Monday, Sept. 5, unless a settlement is reached. (Jim Mone/Associated Press)

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nurses-set-to-strike-over-insurance-at-5-minnesota-hospitals/2016/09/04/2e5c49aa-72ae-11e6-9781-49e591781754_story.html

[madokie]

1. My wife is a nurse

and I'm here to say that Nurses earn their pay and then some.
Its nothing for her to have to put in 60 hr weeks

like she said though she's taking it to the bank. 2 more years and she can retire and all this overtime they put off on her is helping in what she'll draw in SS.

[dflprincess]

2. The media (and Allina) have really played up the health insurance issue

and that is an area of dispute. In the expired contract the union had negotiated coverage that the nurses could actually afford to use. Allina now wants the nurses to accept the same kind of crap, high deductible coverage most its other employees have.

Allina is trying its best to make the nurses appear selfish for wanting decent insurance. The irony of a hospital and clinic system thinking its employees should have "coverage" that may keep them from actually accessing care seems to have been lost on most people.

Other big issues are workplace safety and staffing levels (which, of course, affect patient safety) but they are not getting nearly the attention the health insurance is.

[the_sly_pig]

3. F health insurance companies.

scum sucking leeches.

[dflprincess]

4. To be clear, Allina is a hospital and clinic system, not insurance.

It is claiming that health insurance costs are too high to continue to provide the nurses with coverage they might actually be able to use (as I said before, they don't see the irony in that). Other issues with the contract are workplace safety and staffing levels.

[the_sly_pig]

5. That may be true...

However, at my last physical both my doctor and his nurse tried to upsell me some blood tests, one for tuberculosis. My opinion is that insurance companies are to health care providers as big oil is to the auto industry.

Also in my experience I feel that doctors are now highly compensated hourly workers that do what corporate tells them. Don't get me wrong, I like my doctor, I just no longer trust his motives.

[dflprincess]

6. Wow that does surprise me

My doctor has actually cut back on the number of annual "routine" tests he does (and he is part of a major hospital/clinic system in the area - not Allina). When I asked him last year why he wasn't doing all the regular ones, he said one thing computerized records are helping with is crunching numbers/results to determine just how often some tests need to be done, especially when they've been normal year after year.

[geardaddy]

7. I went by the picket line last night at Abbot Northwestern Hospital

honked and gave a thumbs up.

I'm an Allina customer and I want my nurses treated fairly.

Solidarity.