[1]NNU - Medicare for All!

[1]2022 Year in Review



In 2021, CVS was found to be the largest known donor to the Partnership
for America’s Health Care Future, a dark-money corporate front group
focused on blocking any and all health care reform efforts in the U.S. —
most notably Medicare for All. This year, we turned up the heat in our
corporate campaign calling on CVS Health to stop bankrolling anti-Medicare
for All efforts.

Our work this year built on the incredible actions that took place in
2021, including driving hundreds of phone calls directly to executives,
Covid-safe solo actions at more than 400 stores, media attention, and
more.

Here’s what we accomplished together this year:

Letter to the Editor writing workshops and Valentine’s Day Actions

In January, dozens of volunteers joined us for workshops to learn how to
write effective letters to the editor (LTEs) in their local newspapers
about CVS Health’s ties to funding anti-Medicare for All efforts. Some
were published!

Then, in February, more than 200 activists visited CVS stores across the
country, leaving a Valentine’s Day card behind in the card aisle with our
request that CVS stop breaking our hearts by blocking Medicare for All!

CVS Art Contest

In late February, we launched a contest asking artists to create and
submit pieces that captured the spirit of our campaign and collectively
demand that CVS stop blocking health care as a human right.

With an open call to artists around the country with monetary prizes for
top winners, dozens of incredible pieces were submitted. We were honored
to select six top prize winners. We shared their artwork when the winners
were announced this past spring, [ [link removed] ]but you can check them out here again!

Here is the artwork by our top prize winner, Ella Endo:

[ [link removed] ][IMG]

CVS: Checking Every Heart Rate, by Ella Endo

CVS National Day of Action

On May 7, volunteers held Covid-safe canvass actions at CVS stores across
the country, amplifying our demands on the weekend before CVS Health’s
annual shareholder meeting, the largest and most important day in their
corporate calendar. Together we collected petition signatures, talked to
customers, and made sure that CVS heard us loud and clear! And then a few
days later...

We crashed the CVS Annual Shareholder Meeting

On May 11, NNU President and RN, Jean Ross joined CVS Health’s virtual
annual shareholder meeting to ask their executives directly: Which side
are you on?

Jean was bolstered by the incredible amount of organizing that our
movement had accomplished over the last year, and as a result, CVS was
forced to respond on the spot to our collective demand that they stop
funding the Partnership.

CEO Karen Lynch’s response — claiming that CVS was technically not
currently donating to the Partnership, while simultaneously defending
everything they stand for — was wholly inadequate. [ [link removed] ]You can watch Jean’s
recap about what happened during that infamous interaction back in May
here.

[ [link removed] ][IMG]

CVS Action in Las Vegas

With CVS giving Jean such an inadequate response at the shareholder
meeting in May, we knew we had to dial up the pressure even further.

So after months of sharing our national petition and collecting a total of
more than 35,000 signatures from customers demanding that CVS publicly and
permanently cut ties from the Partnership, we showed up in force at one of
CVS’s most iconic storefronts in the country on the Las Vegas strip.

Our demand was clear — CVS: Stop Gambling with Our Health!

We rallied outside the store and hand delivered the petition signatures to
staff inside the store, along with a letter stating our demands.

Our action was covered by multiple local news outlets, and CVS was forced
to respond to our action when asked for comment by the Fox 5 news station
in Las Vegas. Sadly, they repeated their same inadequate stance from
earlier in the year. [ [link removed] ]Sandy Reding, RN and Vice President of NNU, talked
more about the action in a short video that you can watch here.

[ [link removed] ][IMG]Nurses and activists outside the CVS store on the Las Vegas strip,
led by NNU Vice President and RN Sandy Reding.

October CVS National Day of Action

We gave CVS’ executives until October 4 to respond to our demand that they
publicly and permanently cut ties with the Partnership. Unsurprisingly,
they did not meet our demand and instead only repeated their same tired
talking points — distancing themselves from the Partnership while trying
to defend them at the same time.

So together with volunteers and nurses we held a national day of action on
October 15. Actions took place at 22 stores around the country — we
collected hundreds more signatures, talked to customers, and made clear to
CVS that we would not accept their cowardly responses!

Our collective organizing against CVS Health this year was a powerful
corporate campaign. We are immensely proud of the work that we’ve done
together, and grateful for all of the incredible volunteers who have
joined us.

We know that in order to win Medicare for All in the U.S., we’ll need to
directly take on and challenge the corporations that stand in our way. We
plan to keep that work up in 2023, and we hope you’ll join us.

In solidarity,

Nurses’ Campaign to Win Medicare for All 



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