California Nurses Association Launches Drive for 'Cheney Care'

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OAKLAND, California (PAI)-- First, 15 years ago, there was “Hillary Care.” Now there’s “Cheney Care.” But there’s a big difference between the two - and a big difference in the health care they provide.

“Hillary Care” is the GOP moniker for the national health care plan pushed by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton during her husband’s administration. With the aid of GOP ad man Peter Novelli and his infamous lying “Harry and Louise” campaign, “Hillary Care” sank in the then-Democratic-run Congress. Novelli now holds a top position with AARP.

“Chene Care” is the California Nurses Association’s name for the gold-plated care anti-worker GOP Vice President Dick Cheney has received after his heart troubles -care not available to the rest of the country. And it won’t be available without government-run single-payer universal health care, the union adds in its ads.

CNA launched its Cheney Care campaign with full-page newspaper ads, in Washington and in key primary and caucus states, even as it signed up another statewide affiliate on Jan. 10. The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Health Professionals became part of CNA, which also has affiliates in Nevada, Arizona and Illinois besides its California home base.

Union Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro says “Cheney Care” - low-cost, guaranteed, and you can choose your doctor - is what everyone would get with universal single-payer health care. Without it, she added, Cheney - given his heart troubles - would be dead. CNA wants voters to sign petitions demanding care like Cheney’s.

“All Americans have the right to the quality of care our vice-president, president and Congress already have,” DeMoro said. “All the leading Democratic proposals -including the one from Clinton, now a presidential hopeful, “fall well short of “Cheney Care,” keeping insurance companies at the apex of power and allowing them to deny care that can save lives. The Republican proposals are even worse,” she added.