As AFT healthcare members gathered in Washington, D.C., in late April for their annual professional issues conference, the division’s leaders wanted to make one thing clear to attendees: There is a direct connection between the work that lawmakers in Washington accomplish through legislation and the work healthcare members do back home.

“The decisions made here affect our lives every day,” AFT Healthcare program and policy chair and AFT vice president Candice Owley told the more than 250 healthcare professionals in attendance. “It’s important that people begin to connect the dots between what we are doing back home and what people in Washington are doing.”

This year, more than 150 participants took part in the lobby day activity, which allows conference participants to meet with their members of Congress. Cynthia McDougall, a labor and delivery nurse at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a member of Health Professionals and Allied Employees Local 5089, came to her first conference because she was concerned about the proposed Medicaid cuts.

“It was important for me to attend lobby day and tell my congressman about the potential harm these cuts could pose for our  facility and its patients,” says McDougall, who has been a nurse for 17 years.

On the opening day of the conference, AFT Healthcare unveiled a new campaign to fight proposed funding cuts to Medicaid. That same day, leaders of the Senate and House budget committees announced a federal budget agreement that includes nearly $10 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next five years.

“These cuts can do real damage and put people’s lives in jeopardy,” said Owley. “Ten billion is a lot of money, and it translates into losses in all our states.” Owley also pointed out that Medicaid cuts will increase the number of uninsured, which will result in patients coming to healthcare facilities much sicker.

“Our work is going to be cut out for us,” Owley warned, “but we have to find a way to ensure these cuts don’t diminish the care that patients receive.”

“This is the most difficult political climate I’ve ever been in,” said AFT Healthcare president Edward J. McElroy at the opening session. “This administration knows the cost of everything and the value of absolutely nothing. We are cutting entitlement programs yet are able to find the resources to provide a tax cut to those who need it the least.”

McElroy encouraged attendees to focus on effective ways to build the union, starting with organizing new members. “The best organizers for the union are its members,” he said, and by getting them involved in issues and in political action, others will see the power and effectiveness of the union. When the union speaks out, he added, it will be heard more loudly and more broadly than it is now.

Nurses: The last real hope

“Nurses are the last real hope for healthcare in America,” said Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the New York Times bestseller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. “You are the only people who see patients as human beings.”

“The healthcare system is becoming a health hazard,” said Ehrenreich, who spoke with humor and poignancy about “the assault on the poor and working class” in America. The hazard is not due to medical errors but to the fact that the rising cost of care is driving people into poverty, she explained.

The decline of employer-sponsored healthcare insurance, decent paying jobs and affordable housing, and the effort to change Social Security, have only served to polarize society, said Ehrenreich. “The middle class is shrinking, and the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”

“What is the goal of taking away these things?” she asked. “They want us scared. Fear is contagious. But courage is contagious too. We have to do a lot more to spread it around. We’re going to need all the courage we can get,” Ehrenreich told participants. “We are fighting for deep and lasting changes. … It won’t always be an uphill battle. We’re going to win because we have a secret weapon: solidarity.”

Carol Etherington, a nurse and past president of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Doctors Without Borders, was another featured speaker. Etherington began her career as a nurse in Appalachia.

“What we see in some areas of America parallels what we see globally. The healthcare systems are often overwhelmed,” noted Etherington, who recounted the experiences of refugees she cared for in Angola, Cambodia and Sierra Leone.

“Health and human rights are inextricably linked. We must strive to ensure people have human rights and dignity as well as their health,” she said, urging healthcare workers to be more active and “be a voice for those who don’t have a voice.”

Etherington also encouraged conference participants to think about offering financial support or volunteering to work for  organizations like Doctors Without Borders.

“It’s a great time to think about doing it if you want to go into this kind of work.”