Deborah Burger is a Registered Nurse and President of the California Nurses Association (CNA). CNA is a growing, progressive, female-dominated union dedicated to achieving a single standard of healthcare for all Americans. Over the past year, Burger has led the CNA through a wide-ranging confrontation with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger over his attack on patient safety laws, his unpopular special election, and his record-setting corporate fundraising. Burger has been nursing for over thirty years, in almost every hospital unit, and currently specializes in diabetes care management in Santa Rosa, California.

Blog Entries by Deborah Burger

Follow the Money on Health Care Reform

1 Comments | Posted June 15, 2009 | 03:27 PM (EST)


"What Happened to Single Payer?," asks the Washington Independent in a recent article.

One answer, the Independent suggests, comes from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. John Conyers, authors of the single payer bills in the Senate, S 703, and House, HR 676:

Both lawmakers argue that private insurers,...
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America's RNs Call for Much Broader Response to Swine Flu

8 Comments | Posted April 30, 2009 | 02:08 PM (EST)


After years of shredding our public health infrastructure and ill-advised minimal preparations for the next great global pandemic, the spreading swine flu threat is at last making clear the very real calamity that could be just around the corner. If not today, surely from the next epidemic.

The Obama administration's...

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Tell the Insurers and Congress We Need Real Reform

Posted April 3, 2009 | 01:29 PM (EST)


With the final White House Forum on healthcare scheduled Monday, April 6 in downtown Los Angeles, advocates of single payer/guaranteed healthcare have one more opportunity to shake up what has become a dreary conventional wisdom about the presumed acceptable parameters of the debate.

Hundreds of nurses, doctors, healthcare and...

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Historic Pact Creates RN "SuperUnion" -- 150,000 Nurses Strong

Posted February 23, 2009 | 07:09 PM (EST)


If anyone can move mountains to build a more humane healthcare system and strengthen protections for patients in the face of the avarice and plunder that so often characterizes the healthcare industry in America, it is registered nurses.

And the latest news for patients, and nurses, is especially promising.

...
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The Healthcare Crisis is the Employment Crisis

Posted January 15, 2009 | 04:13 PM (EST)


What if we could end the health care crisis dogging our nation -- and grow 2.6 million jobs at the same time?

The good news is we can. If America summons the courage, and the will, to resolve our health care crisis, we can provide our national economy with a...

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Palin Mirrors McCain's Free Market Healthcare Fundamentalism

Posted September 2, 2008 | 04:11 PM (EST)


John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin offers a vivid glimpse of the philosophical leanings of a Presidential candidate who bears little resemblance to the media's rapturous portrait of an independent maverick, and provides a window into the policies that a McCain presidency would promote.

While probably most evident...

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SEIU's Latest Disgrace -- Violent Attack on Michigan Meeting of Union Members and RNs

Posted April 13, 2008 | 08:39 PM (EST)


In its latest deplorable action, the Service Employees International Union bused in hundreds of its purple clad staff to break up a conference of union members and activists Saturday night in Dearborn, Mich.

Ironically enough, union democracy and empowering workers was one of the themes of the conference, sponsored by...

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SEIU Stalking, Harassing Nurses at Home-Is This the Face of a 'Progressive' Union?

Posted April 11, 2008 | 05:40 PM (EST)


Roving bands of Service Employee International Union staff showed up on the home doorsteps of leaders of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Association Thursday, harassing and verbally threatening them in a disgraceful escalation of SEIU International's campaign against CNA/NNOC.

Notably, the attacks focused on women leaders forced to confront squads...

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The Power of Patient Advocacy

Posted April 4, 2008 | 04:37 PM (EST)


It's a beautiful morning in Orange County, the surf's up, and it's spring break for the students at Valencia High School, except one: 17-year-old Nick Colombo. Nick is home in bed, suffering from the devastating and painful complications of his four-year battle with Ewing's Sarcoma. He's waiting for a break...

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A Message to Sen. Clinton -- Forcing People to Buy Insurance is Not Universal Healthcare

Posted February 4, 2008 | 09:19 PM (EST)


Someone needs to tell Senator Hillary Clinton and her minions to stop practicing consumer fraud on healthcare. Forcing people to buy insurance is not "universal healthcare."

Especially when you let insurers continue to charge as much as they want, and do nothing to stop their callous, all too routine practice...

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We All Deserve CheneyCare -- Sign Our Petition

Posted January 7, 2008 | 07:42 PM (EST)


If you read the New York Times, Washington Post, or USA Today, you might have noticed an eye-popping ad Monday -- and we hope you too will sign our petition and tell us your story.

Under a news headline reading, "Cheney Treated in Hospital For an Irregular Heartbeat," the ad...

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Did the Diversion of Resources for the Iraq War Slow the Wildfire Fight?

Posted October 27, 2007 | 12:51 PM (EST)


As California continues to grapple with the spate of terrible wildfires - and new reports that some residents will face hardships for weeks to come, including polluted air, no electricity and no drinking water - it's time to ask if the interminable war in Iraq depleted resources that would have...

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California's Unhealthy Bill: Fake Healthcare Reform A Victory for Schwarzenegger -- And a Boon for Insurance Companies

Posted September 5, 2007 | 10:10 PM (EST)


In alliance with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic leaders of the state Legislature, led by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez are rushing to enact a substandard health reform plan that will not reduce the health insecurity of California families.

They're apparently even willing to jeopardize Sen. Barbara Boxer and their own party's...

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Ugly Health Care Waiting Times? Look at the U.S

Posted July 11, 2007 | 11:09 AM (EST)


What country endures such long waits for medical care that even one of its top insurers recently admitted that care is "not timely" and people "initially diagnosed with cancer are waiting over a month, which is intolerable?"

If you guessed Canada, guess again. The answer is the United States.

Scrambling...

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Clean Money Bill Would Help Push for Real Healthcare Reform

Posted March 22, 2007 | 04:21 PM (EST)


Ever wonder why it's so hard to pass real healthcare reform?

A recent New York Times/CBS poll found that 64% of Americans said the government should guarantee health insurance for all, and 55% identified it as the top domestic priority for Congress and the President.

Yet...

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We're All at Walter Reed

Posted March 6, 2007 | 10:47 AM (EST)


There's another side to the unfolding scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other Veterans Administration facilities. The Bush administration's attitude toward our wounded veterans parallels its behavior toward the rest of our healthcare system - neglect, inadequate funding, and privatization.

It also illustrates a disturbing pattern of misplaced...

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Nursing California Back to Health

Posted February 28, 2007 | 04:57 PM (EST)



Registered Nurses use the "nursing process" to assess and treat patients. We collect data and apply our judgment skills to help them survive. When we ask a patient how they are doing, their favorite flower or about their children, we are not just being pleasant. We are noting...

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This President's Weekend, It's Guns Not Butter

Posted February 16, 2007 | 07:15 PM (EST)


With President Bush now proposing to push the price tag for the war on Iraq up to nearly $600 billion - more than was spent on the Vietnam war - while seeking new cuts in our healthcare safety net, it would appear the debate over guns and butter is over....

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The Most Fun You'll Have in Politics--Ever

Posted October 5, 2006 | 07:23 PM (EST)


Politics today is sleazy, corrupt, dishonest, and designed to bore us all to sleep. Who can stand it?

That's why people choose not to vote.

Well, that--and the fact that most elections are pre-determined by who raises more money from the lobbyists and donors.

Colette Washington is fixing both problems...

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Watching an Idea Take Hold

Posted June 28, 2006 | 10:04 PM (EST)


Have you ever watched an idea take hold?

Here's your chance.

Right now, the idea of publicly financed, or clean, elections is taking hold across the country. In California, hundreds of thousands of people signed a petition to put an inititiative for Clean Elections on the ballot. Voters in Portland...

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