National Nurses United (NNU), which identifies itself as the nation’s largest union of RNs with more than 225,000 members, was scheduled to bring its nationwide Red Alert tour to Alameda (Calif.) Hospital on Saturday. It would be the third stop on the tour, which visits a community hospital on a Saturday each month to inform and “warn” local communities that the facilities are facing a “drastic reduction in quantity and quality of health care services” resulting from H.R. 1, popularly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The union chose Alameda Hospital as the site for this month’s rally due to what it describes as the facility’s financial vulnerability to looming Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Medicare and Medicaid are responsible for 84% of Alameda Hospital’s net patient revenue, according to NNU.
NNU says Alameda Hospital has operated at a deficit for six of the last eight years, suffering a loss of more than $110 million over that time period. It cites an analysis from the hospital’s parent organization Alameda Health System (AHS) projecting losses of up to $100 million in 2027 and $150 million in 2028 due to Medicare and Medicaid cuts.
To reinforce the urgency of the situation and clarify the opportunity costs that are resulting from how the government is spending its money, the union and its nurses frame cuts to Medicare and Medicaid against increased federal investment in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). They say money that should go to health care is being “funneled” into immigration enforcement, which the union calls “a deadly, illegal, and cruel terror campaign.”
The union quotes Mawata Kamara, RN, of AHS’ San Leandro Hospital: “It is sickening to think money that should be spent on caring for our community is being used to target people instead. That’s not what I want my tax money to go towards. All that money going to ICE needs to be channeled back into our community and our hospitals. We have to educate each other and come together in solidarity to create a society where everyone can get the health care they need.”
The Alameda Hospital stop was scheduled to run from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, featuring free wellness checks, musical performances, a drag story hour, and numerous speakers including NNU Co-Presidents Cathy Kennedy, RN, and Mary Turner, RN; Ms. Kamara; Keith Brown of the Alameda Labor Council; Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource & Organizing Center; Benyamin Chao of the California Immigrant Policy Center; and Vinnie Bacon, chair of the Alameda County Progressive Democrats.
NNU claims the Red Alert tour is intended to build the “power and community support needed to save more than 600 vulnerable nonprofit hospitals from slashed services or closure.”
A photo from the RED ALERT tour’s Glendale, Calif., stop in January. | National Nurses United on Flickr
The tour visited Glendale, Calif., in January to spotlight concerns about the future of Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center and USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, and Oceanside, Calif., in February to do the same regarding Tri-City Medical Center.
The tour’s next stop is April 25 at Oroville (Calif.) Hospital. Additional Red Alert tour stops are scheduled, with specific locations still to be announced:
Read more about the Red Alert tour here.
