Sanders stance on healthcare, education, and jobs is prescription for change in state with one of highest number of uninsured

Nurses aboard National Nurses United’s #BernieBus have been connecting with voters up and down the the Sunshine State over the last two weeks, about why they support Bernie Sanders in a wide variety of settings and locations from hospitals, college campuses, and farmers markets to the annual Rough Rider Parade where the bus was one of the many floats.

“People throughout Florida have been excited to see the nurses for Bernie bus. They come up to us and want to know more, or many times, they’re already supporters—and they give us their reasons for supporting Bernie while we share ours,” said RN Deborah Burger an NNU Co-President, who has been traveling on the bus for the last two weeks. “Now its time to do all we can to turn the excitement and enthusiasm we have experienced throughout the state for Bernie to actual votes

One of the top reasons nurses support Sanders’ candidacy is his unequivocal demand to expand Medicare to provide healthcare to all residents as a basic human right, not a for-profit enterprise. Florida, with 948,000 uninsured adults, ranks among states with the country’s highest numbers of uninsured, and almost one-third skipped care due to costs. despite passage of the Affordable Care Act. The state’s governor, former hospital corporate executive Rick Scott, has refused to implement the Medicaid expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Nurses have been touring the country, and particularly swing states, since January in their #BernieBus, using it as a mobile voter education vehicle. To date they have traveled through Iowa, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio Illinois, and Missouri

From Nevada to New Hampshire, from Colorado to South Carolina, nurses have talked to voters and been reminded of the huge gaps in access to health care and education, concerns about retirement security, the jobs lost due to unfair trade deals, widespread inequality, and the escalating climate crisis that continue to plague so many communities and families,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, Executive Director of NNU.