INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Around 15,000 nurses across the U.S
state of Minnesota are on a three-day strike in what is believed to be the largest private sector nurses strike in U.S
The protest puts further pressure on a health care system in America that is already facing growing calls from the public to undergo urgent
reforms amid criticism over higher prices and insurance.The nurses in Minnesota say they are burned out in the face of staff shortage,
Chris Rubesch, the vice president of the Minnesota Nurses Association and a nurse
to the bathroom, but that can take 10 minutes or more
health workers said they are striking to "save our profession"."Fifty-one percent of us could potentially leave the bedside as of next
year," Mary Turner, president of Minnesota Nurses Association, said
"That's a health crisis"."We are not on strike for our wages
three days and has impacted more than a dozen hospitals
But if negotiations fail to reach an agreement, members of the Minnesota Nurses Association say they will likely vote again to authorize
"Hospital executives have already driven nurses away from the bedside by their refusal to solve the crises of staffing and retention in our
hospitals," the union's negotiating team said in a statement, adding that nurses were "understaffed and overworked."Veteran U.S
Senator Bernie Sanders backed the protest and called for fairness, writing on social media "nurses are the backbone of our health care
over the past year, with employees said to be exhausted by working during the pandemic and now struggling with inflation.Industrial action
by nurses takes place as 100,000 railroad workers are preparing for strike action, 6,000 teachers are on strike in Seattle, and all sections
of workers are seeking a way to fight against soaring inflation and increasing inequality.The strike action by exhausted nurses reflects the
mood of health care workers and a battered American health sector.There are signs the nurses' strike action, which has been months in the
making, could influence health workers in other states
Earlier this month, four thousand nurses with the Michigan Nurses Association voted to authorize a strike over understaffing concerns.This
comes as 7,000 health care workers in Oregon have also called for a similar strike
Nurses in Wisconsin narrowly averted a strike this week
Health care workers in Hawaii and California are in the fourth week of what has become the longest running mental health care strike over
staff shortages.For a while now hospitals in the U.S
have been facing problems with inadequate staff
Higher demand on the medical sector and more safety risks for nurses during the pandemic have made the problem worse
The number of healthcare workers is nowhere near the pre-pandemic level, having gone down by 37,000 workers compared with February 2020,
Bureau of Labor Statistics.At the same time, demand for health care services shot up during the pandemic, with a backlog of patients who
staffing levels on their shifts since 2014.A Minnesota Department of Health survey found 19 percent of nurses in the state said last year
they plan to leave the profession in five years.Nurses are quitting and retiring early in large numbers following the covid pandemic which
was the deadliest in the U.S
But the nurses, who faced death during the pandemic, are leaving now because of increased workloads caused by short staffing and extremely
struggling to afford and is believed to be the primary reason Americans do not get the health care they need.Polls show the cost of
treatment is having a burden on families and factor into decisions about insurance coverage and care seeking
adults say they have difficulty affording health care costs while about four in ten U.S
adults say they have delayed or gone without medical care in the last year due to the price.A substantial number of adults has reported
needed care or filling prescriptions
About a quarter of adults say they or their family members have not filled a prescription, cut pills in half, or skipped doses of medicine
in the last year because of the cost, with larger shares of those in households with lower incomes, Black and Hispanic adults.High health
care costs disproportionately affect uninsured adults, Black and Hispanic adults, and those with lower incomes
A larger percentage of American adults in each of these groups report difficulty affording various types of care and delaying or forgoing
medical care due to the cost.Even those who are covered by health insurance are not immune to the burden of health care costs
About one-third of insured adults worry about affording their monthly health insurance premium, and 44 percent worry about affording their
deductible before health insurance kicks in.Healthcare debt is also a burden for a large number of Americans
About four in ten adults report having debt due to medical or dental bills including debts owed to credit cards, collections agencies,
family and friends, banks, and other lenders to pay for their health care costs, with disproportionate shares of Black and Hispanic adults,
women, parents, those with low incomes, and uninsured adults saying they have health care debt.Affording gas and transportation costs is now
a top worry for Americans followed by unexpected medical bills
While the worry over gasoline and transportation costs has risen markedly since 2020, significant numbers of adults still say they are
worried about affording medical costs such as unexpected bills, deductibles, and long-term care services for themselves or a family
spends $4 trillion on healthcare each year, many Americans still lack access to good, affordable care which is one of the, if not the most
expensive in the world and the suffering of the country's medical workers is set to make matters worse.
