A dozen St. Mary’s Medical Center nurses and community members gathered in front of Rep. Mark Amodei’s office, to voice their concerns about the impact Medicaid cuts would have on hospitals, especially those in rural areas.
They stood next to the entrance of the building chanting “shame on you,” and held signs that read “some cuts don’t heal” and “nobody elected Musk.”
Nurse Laura Parkhouse said the cuts would have a wide reaching effect across the state.
“We primarily take care of patients who live in Reno, but also many who come from rural communities in Nevada. Many of our patients rely on Medicaid for their life saving medical care, for their long term care, many children rely on Medicaid as they're not eligible for employer funded insurance.” Parkhouse said.
They planned to present an oversized check of $1.1 billion. Written out to the “billionaire class” paid for by “working people.”
That's the amount that would be taken from Medicaid to fund the billionaire class according to National Nurses United. The group planned to continue their protest inside of the office building.
“However, we have not been allowed into the building although it is a public, taxpayer funded office,” Parkhouse said.
The owners of the building told the protesters they were trespassing on private property and could not enter the office and called the police.
Police did arrive but did not remove the group from the property. Amodei was not in his office at the time of the protest.
