National Nurses United identifies Alameda Hospital at risk of service cuts, closure due to federal cuts in Medicaid and Medicare

Nurses put Alameda Hospital on "RED ALERT" status

RNs condemn health care cuts that fund ICE/CBP terror campaign

The nation's largest union of registered nurses, National Nurses United, is sounding a "RED ALERT" warning to hundreds of communities nationwide that face a drastic reduction in quantity and quality of health care services as a result of H.R. 1, the Republican bill passed last year. Nurses condemn these cuts to health care funding and denounce the funnelling of this money into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), which have unleashed a deadly, illegal, and cruel terror campaign across the country.

On Saturday, March 21, nurses will make a stop on the "RED ALERT" tour at Alameda Hospital in Alameda, Calif. The Alameda stop is the first Bay Area stop on the nationwide tour. This event is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. See below for a complete schedule of activities.

Alameda Hospital is financially vulnerable to the looming Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

• Medicare and Medicaid are responsible for 84 percent of Alameda Hospital's net patient revenue.
• Alameda Hospital has operated at a deficit for six of the last eight years, suffering a loss of more than $110 million from 2018 through 2025.
• Alameda Hospital is part of the Alameda Health System (AHS). AHS released an analysis projecting that, due to Medicaid cuts, it could lose up to $100 million in 2027 and $150 million in 2028.

"We must fight back against these health care cuts that put our patients' well-being in real danger," said Mawata Kamara, a registered nurse at AHS's 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."

More information on the financial vulnerability of Alameda Hospital in Alameda and potential impacts on patient care are available here.

Nurses condemn the pending cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that undermine patients' health and well-being and are used instead to pay for armed and masked marauding ICE and CBP agents that terrorize communities across the nation. Nurses mourn the loss of those who have been killed by immigration officers, those who have died in ICE/CBP custody, and condemn the wanton actions of federal agents who have injured so many. In light of these deaths and other atrocities, NNU is calling for the abolition of ICE.

Nurses know things do not have to be this way, and they are offering a new path forward.

In Alameda, nurses will join with community leaders to put forward a vision for a healthy society and encourage community members to join this grassroots movement. The Red Alert stop is designed to be both educational and fun and includes no-cost wellness checks, music, family entertainment and free tacos.

What: Nurses' 'RED ALERT' bus tour stop
When: Saturday, March 21, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
- 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.: Free Wellness Checks
- 11:50 a.m.: Performance with singer/actor Brendan Hines
- 12 p.m.: Speaker program
- 1 p.m.: Performance with Zo1 & B. Deveaux of the Kingmakers of Oakland
- 1:20 p.m.: Drag story hour with Black Benatar
Where: Alameda Hospital, 2070 Clinton Ave., Alameda, Calif.
Speakers include: NNU President Cathy Kennedy, RN; NNU President Mary Turner, RN; Mawata Kamara, RN; Keith Brown, Alameda Labor Council; Lara Kiswani, executive director, Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC); Benyamin Chao, California Immigrant Policy Center; Vinnie Bacon, chair of Alameda County Progressive Democrats

"RED ALERT" tour offers the union nurse vision for how to make America healthy:

H.R. 1, which Republicans and President Trump pushed, cut more than $1 trillion in federal funding to health care to give billionaires tax breaks and militarize immigration enforcement. In response to this unprecedented attack on public health, registered nurses will be taking their alternative vision for a healthy society directly to the patients and working-class communities they serve.

"The billionaire class and their Republican puppets are gutting public health protections to make themselves richer and militarize our neighborhoods, with zero regard for working people and families struggling to survive," said NNU President Mary Turner, RN. "Nurses refuse their deadly agenda. We're taking the wheel and bringing our vision for a healthy society directly to patients and communities who will bear the brunt of Republican policies. We invite everyone who has felt abandoned by the political system to join us and build real working-class solidarity."

The "RED ALERT" tour aims to build the power and community support needed to save more than 600 vulnerable nonprofit hospitals from slashed services or closure. Not just Medicaid patients will suffer; without community hospitals, all patients have no way to heal from the illnesses and injuries they experience due to the conditions of their everyday lives.

Cuts to services and staffing are also detrimental. Patients experience longer ER wait times, increased travel time for care, worse health outcomes (including death), and a loss of jobs at the hospital, which is often the biggest community employer.

Nurses are calling for the restoration of our health care system by passing the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act, which reverses the $1 trillion cut to Medicaid and other health programs that were gutted by H.R. 1.

Nurses know it will take a mass mobilization to create the changes needed to build a society that takes care of everyone's needs. We see the Red Alert Tour as an important step in building the grassroots movement to make this vision for a healthy society a reality.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.