Katie (00:00):
Two, to the four awesome humans on The Hill and our first ever Healthcare is Human Rally on Capitol Hill. Today, we are here to improve healthcare, for the patients, for our pay, for our mental health, for our voices, for the colleagues we have lost, and for the broken systems that keep telling us to suck it up. Today, we are not sucking it up. Today, we are not sucking it up.
(00:42)
So here's what I need everybody here today and everybody watching to hear. For decades, healthcare policy has meant insurance companies, hospitals, pharma, patients, always important, but somehow, the one group of people that is never in the room, us, the people who provide the care. That's wild, right? That's wild. I've worked in healthcare a long time. I started in med-surg. Where are my med-surg people at? Yes, yes. Do you still have your sanity? I hope so.
(01:23)
I started in med-surg as a patient care tech way before the age of social media, thank god. From there, I went to cardiac telemetry, and then from there, I went to the emergency room, and heart failure, and transplant, and then to telehealth. The shifts in my career have often happened because of unsafe working conditions, pay that did not represent the value of my work and my contribution to healthcare, and speaking up and using my voice.
(01:54)
We get called heroes in the spring and encouraged to be silent in the fall. We get told to self-care by a system that does not care if we get a lunch break. We get told we are essential and then treated as expendable. Today, it's time for us to stop being told and time for us to speak up, time for us to stand up. And listen, there's a lot that needs to change, and FIGS is here all year long, working to do that on a wide range of issues, but today is about three things specifically. Number one, the bill that FIGS helped write along with leaders in Congress, the Healthcare is Human Act. It's a simple bill with up to a $6,000 tax credit for healthcare professionals working in the thousands of shortage areas across the country.
(02:59)
Two, fully fund the Dr. Lorna Breen Act. Shout-out to the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation, our phenomenal partners, and here with us today. As you know, and if you don't know, Dr. Lorna Breen was an emergency medicine physician who died by suicide after working through the pandemic. It wasn't Lorna's work that caused her to take her life. It was the stigma and the fear that asking for help and getting help would end her career, end her career. That ends now. Mental healthcare for healthcare workers, healthcare professionals, has to be funded, safe to use, easy to access. It's not much, right? This is the bare minimum. And the third ask, the Healthcare Professionals SPEAK FREE Act, which as someone who's been told to be careful what you post thousands of times, and also been fired for posting on social media about what it's like working in healthcare, that speaks directly to my soul. So right now, if you speak up about something unsafe, whether it's unsafe staffing, nurses, whether it is an insurance company overriding a clinical call, or patient care put at risk, you can be punished. We work in a punitive culture system. You can be pushed out. Your network status can be revoked or withheld. Your career can be jeopardized. You can be fired. That is not a healthcare system. That is a gag order that harms patients and puts us all at risk. Because we cannot take care of you, and you, and your mom, and your loved ones if we cannot speak the truth about what we are seeing in our healthcare systems.
(05:15)
I am so proud to be with all of you here today. I'm so honored to be standing here, and I have never seen what is standing in front of me right now. We are not the future of healthcare. We are not the future of healthcare. We are the backbone of it. We are the backbone of it. We are not asking. We are demanding. We are not going home quietly. We are going home with policy. And today, we, the backbone of American healthcare, walked right up to the front of the Capitol Hill steps, and we said, "We are here. We are not leaving until something changes. We are not leaving until something changes."
(06:19)
Now, I want to bring up a few women, two women specifically, who endlessly fight for us, because they genuinely care, two women who did not... " Whoop, whoop." There it goes. Two women who did not build a scrub company, they redefined an industry and built a movement for us. You are all living and standing in it right now. So please join me in welcoming your FIGS co-founders Heather Hasson and Trina Spear. [inaudible 00:06:52]
Trina Spear (06:51):
You're the best.
Heather Hasson (06:51):
Katie, that was great. That was great.
Katie (07:05):
I love you guys. This is off script. I've known them for five years. I was a hater of FIGS for a long time. I'm just going to be real. I'm going to talk real talk for a minute. I loved to hate FIGS for many years.
Heather Hasson (07:22):
Way to go.
Katie (07:23):
And I was like, "No way." But then I sat down with Trina, and we had dinner, and I got to see that this person here, and Heather here, they genuinely care. It is the essence of their existence on this planet. It was what they were put here to do. So please give them a round of applause.
Heather Hasson (07:45):
Thank you, Katie. Oh, this is actually very cool.
Trina Spear (07:52):
Yeah. We've never done the teleprompter thing, so we're going to figure this out realtime.
Heather Hasson (07:56):
Yeah, sorry guys. I think I'm just going to do this.
Trina Spear (07:59):
All right, go for it.
Heather Hasson (08:00):
All right. Good morning, everybody. It's so cool to see everybody and see you all. I was trying to match you guys with my glasses. That's why I'm wearing blue glasses. Thank you so much for being here. I'm Heather Hasson, Co-Founder and Chairman of FIGS, and I just want to say thank you, and thank you really honestly for being here today, and showing up, and showing up in your FIGS, and showing up regardless if you have work or not. I think that's rolling. Sorry, guys.
(08:37)
You guys are the most important people in the world, and I want you to know that. And I think you know that. Some of you know that. Some of you might know that, but you really are. We would not be here without you. I'm not talking about FIGS. I'm talking about people, animals. Like, we can't live without healthcare professionals, and I'm going totally off script. I got to get back. Healthcare professionals have been a focus, my focus, Trina's focus, for a very long time. You guys really inspire myself, me and Trina. This is hard. I don't normally read speeches. I apologize. Your passion, your minds, your commitment to taking care of all of us is just incredible. And that's why we're here today. And everyone else is going to talk about specific causes we are here advocating for. But I want to talk to you all about what makes you so incredible, because you need to hear it.
(09:32)
Last night, I was thinking about the concept of "First do no harm," and how this oath, this small statement, this commitment is so powerful. Centuries ago, lighthouse keepers stood alone on dangerous coastlines through storms, darkness, and exhaustion. You're probably thinking where am I going with this, but I'll get there. Most people never know their names. They don't know who they are. They don't even see them. Ships would pass in the night without ever seeing the person tending to that little, tiny flame. But the countless lives depended on that light remaining absolutely steady, or they would crash.
(10:16)
And all healthcare professionals are kind of the same. The principle of "First do no harm" is not passive. It is an act of vigilance. Like the lighthouse keeper trimming the flame before the dawn, healthcare professionals carry the responsibility of protecting others from unseen danger, often quietly, repeatedly, and without recognition. You all understand that human life is fragile and care itself is sacred. You enter a storm of uncertainty every single day, and you do it without a lot of the support and recognition that you deserve. So look around you, because you are the lighthouse keepers. You are the beacons laypeople rely on in crisis, and animals obviously.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Go animals!
Heather Hasson (11:08):
Go animals. And today, we're gathered to shed a little light on those unseen acts, to share with the world that this unwavering commitment to "First do no harm" deserves a moment in the sun. Thank you all for being here. It means the world to myself, to the company, to FIGS, to Trina, and you guys seriously are the best. You're the best, so thank you so much. I want to introduce my co-founder and CEO, Trina Spear.
Trina Spear (11:44):
Hello, everybody. Thank you, Heather. That was awesome. Welcome to the Healthcare is Human Rally. Trina Spear, Co-Founder and CEO of FIGS. This is just such an incredible moment, and frankly, I'm pretty overwhelmed to see all of these beautiful faces out here. We spend so much time just thinking about you all, so to have all of you right in front of us is amazing. So I just want to thank you so much for being here, for sharing your time and your voice with us.
(12:17)
When we started FIGS almost 15 years ago, we had no idea that we'd be standing here today in Washington, DC. Advocacy, lobbying, and writing our own bills wasn't really on the vision board. But because of you all, it's become one of the most important parts of our business today. When we started FIGS, we wanted to improve your apparel. We wanted to make you look good, and feel good, and perform at your best. And man, do you all look good. But that was pretty simple, right?
(12:53)
But then we got to know you. We met you. We talked to you. We listened to your stories and your experiences. We watched you navigate a global pandemic. We heard about what working in healthcare was really like, and we did our best to celebrate your stories authentically at every turn. But we also realized that simply sharing your experiences wasn't enough, not even close. So while at first, we were focused on what you were wearing, we came to recognize that what needed more of our focus was how you are feeling, how the changing landscape of healthcare is impacting you and your ability to not only do your job, but to love it.
(13:34)
And that's why we're here today, to advocate for meaningful change, because you deserve it. You deserve support for your mental health. You deserve to be able to speak honestly without fearing retaliation. You deserve financial support commensurate with the invaluable services you perform. Last year, healthcare professionals came with us to Washington and told Congress the truth about what life looks like inside healthcare right now, the pride, the pressure, the financial stress, the burnout, the love for the work and the reality that love alone is not enough.
(14:10)
And we're turning that into action. Over the last year, we worked with both Democrats and Republicans to introduce the Healthcare is Human Act, a tax credit of up to $6,000 a year for healthcare professionals serving the thousands of federally recognized shortage areas. And this should not be a hard sell. Congress already has a tax credit for the EV charger in your garage, upgrades to your windows. We incentivize manufacturing and research. It's a no-brainer to incentivize you to not only stay in healthcare, but for you to feel supported, and seen, and valued while you're doing it. Because while this is a tax credit, it represents something so much bigger. It's a statement that healthcare professionals are the most awesome humans in the world. Something we all know well, right?
(15:07)
And that's really what FIGS is all about. Nearly 15 years later, it's still about you and showing up for whatever you need. And our first speaker is one of the most awesome humans we know. He is a physician and educator, a storyteller, a medical mythbuster himself. He has built a platform around making medicine more honest, more accessible, and more human. He is able to contextualize and share real experiences in a truly special way, and we are so lucky to have him here with us today. Please welcome Dr. Joel Bervell.
Dr. Joel Bervell (16:00):
I want to start with my grandmother. He name was Agatha. She came from Ghana to the United States to take care of my siblings and me while my parents were working. She didn't speak any English. She didn't need to. She communicated in the language that grandmothers speak everywhere, food, presents, and the look she gave you when you snuck food from the pot before dinner was ready. I did that all the time, regularly. She was one of my favorite people in the world, but when we were old enough to take care of ourselves, she went home to Ghana.
(16:36)
Within the year, she was gone. She died from malaria, a treatable disease. She had been at a rural clinic and they told her she had to bring her own IV tubing, because they didn't have it. At the time, I was 11 years old. I didn't have the words for what I felt. I only knew the grief on my mom's face and that my grandmother had been alive, and then suddenly she wasn't, and that something about where she was and what was available to her at the time mattered more than it should've. I kept asking myself, would she still be here if she'd gotten sick in the United States? And that question is why I became a doctor.
(17:17)
And it's why I'm standing here today, because what I've learned after years of medical training, now in internal medicine residency, and talking to millions of people every day online about what medicine gets wrong, is that the question I asked about my grandmother in Ghana is the same question patients are asking in American emergency departments right now. Who does the system see clearly enough to protect? And that honest answer is often it depends. It depends on what hospital you can reach, on if there's a doctor who speaks your language. It depends on whether there's a clinic in your neighborhood that's still open or whether the nurse who knew your name decided that the math didn't work anymore or took a job somewhere else. It depends on whether the system that's supposed to be there for you still has the people it needs to function.
(18:09)
A few years ago, I was a medical student scrolling through Instagram when I came across a study in The New England Journal of Medicine. It was about pulse oximeters, those small devices clipped on your finger in every single hospital, in every single clinic, in every ambulance in the United States, the ones that we use to measure oxygen levels, the ones that we trust. The study found that those devices were more likely to overestimate oxygen levels in patients with darker skin, three times as likely. In a black patient, that could lead to dangerously low oxygen levels while the device showed that it read normally.
(18:47)
I remember staring at that study for a long time looking at my screen. I'd already been through a year and a half of medical school. We learned about oxygen, and the lungs and blood. I'd been taught to trust the pulse oximeter in the way that we trust a stoplight. And no one had told me that it might be wrong. So I did what any Gen Z/Millennial would do. I call myself a Zillennial. I made a TikTok. And in 30 seconds, I asked a question. What does racial bias in medicine look like? Within 24 hours, it had half a million views, but it was the comments that stopped me cold. It wasn't just patients saying they didn't know. It was doctors, and nurses, respiratory therapists, people who use this device every single day, every single shift, who had said they'd never heard about this problem before.
(19:37)
And the problem wasn't that people didn't care. The problem was that it left out something important in the conversation. A man named Kwame reached out to me about a year later after that moment, and he told me that during the pandemic, he went to an emergency department in Oakland, California. He was struggling to breathe. His oxygen reading came back 96%. The nurse said, "I think it's okay for you to go home."
(20:01)
But he had seen my video and he remembered it. So he told the doctors, "I saw something about these devices. I don't know if this number is actually right for me. I don't feel good. I want to stay." And they let him stay. That night, his oxygen plummeted. He ended up in the ICU, intubated, right before a doctor came in with an iPad so he could say goodbye to his wife and his newborn daughter, because they didn't know if he was going to survive. He did survive, but only because he had access to a piece of information that the healthcare system had known about for 50 years but never adequately communicated to the patients it was supposed to protect, or to us. Kwame survived because he knew to ask the questions.
(20:48)
But here's what I can't stop thinking about. How many people didn't know to ask? How many people got that same reading, trusted that number, went home, but didn't come back. And we'll never know, because they're not here to tell that story. But I tell this story because it captures something about what's broken and about what's possible. What's broken is a system that has for too long left out important things in the conversation. It's left out us. It's left out patients on who certain devices were tested on. It's left out communities who don't have enough clinicians to meet demand. It's left out whether the person training to be a doctor can actually afford to finish, and it's left out whether the nurse who's been at the bedside for 15 years can afford to still stay. What's possible is a system that decides those things matter and actually acts like it.
(21:41)
But there's something that we don't often say out loud enough in these buildings and in these spaces. Before there's a staffing shortage, there's a person that's doing the math quietly. It's a student from a community that has never had enough doctors looking at the cost of the MCAT, the application fees, the tuition, the board exams, wondering if the years of unpaid and underpaid work, unpaid and underpaid work matter, whether this dream is even still possible. It's the resident calculating rent after a 28-hour shift, deciding whether to pick up another shift, if they can at their institution, or sleep. It's a nurse choosing between the community where her patients know her name and the hospital across town where maybe the pay makes the numbers work, but it's not her community. We don't see those moments, but we do see the staffing shortages. We see the clinics with fewer appointments, the families that have to wait longer, the communities that already have limited care even getting less. And the shortage didn't start there. It began in a quiet moment where someone decided that the math didn't add up, and nobody made it easier for them to stay.
(22:54)
I personally know what that math feels like from the inside. Just earlier this year, I finished an ICU rotation, six days a week, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. I perform CPR on a patient and then minutes later have to walk into another room and tell a family that their loved one had died from cancer. And after a while, I started to feel like I was just going through the motions. Not because I stopped caring, but because the system was moving faster than any human being can process. My best friend told me before I started residency, "You're going to be exhausted, but if you have the energy, still go out. Still have experiences. Still be human." It's the best advice that anyone's ever given me, but it's also a terrible thing that someone had to give it in the first place.
(23:42)
I was wrapping up at the hospital after a long day of work the other day when one of the janitors stopped me in the hallway. She was an older black woman, and she asked me if I could unlock a few rooms so that she could go clean them. I grabbed my badge, helped her out, and we got to talking a little bit. She told me that she and her parents were sharecroppers, that she never got a chance to finish school because of it, that she had worked really hard throughout her entire life, and that life had taken her a lot of different places, but she'd always shown up.
(24:11)
And then she said something that surprised me. She said, "It makes me proud to see someone that looks like you wearing that white coat." And I don't think she knows what that did to me in that moment. It was such a small moment, after an exhausting day, no cameras, no stage, just two people crossing paths in a hallway. But I carried those words for the rest of the week and even until now. She's worked in that hospital for a long time. She shows up every day, cleans those rooms, keeps the place running. She never got the education that she deserved, but she looked at me, a young, black doctor she'd never met, and felt something she hadn't been able to feel before.
(24:56)
That's what representation does. It doesn't just tell people something is possible. It makes us feel it. And that feeling at that moment in the hallway is exactly what is at stake in this conversation about the healthcare workforce, about fair pay, about who we make room for in this system. Because if we want more moments like that one, we have to build a system where the people who want to get there actually can, where the people who actually want to be there and already are there can stay, where the clinicians who speak to their patients in their language, who come from their communities, who have earned their trust are supported instead of slowly priced out.
(25:38)
The Healthcare is Human Act understands that. It's a federal tax credit for healthcare professionals serving in the thousands of communities with shortages. It's not just a workforce policy. It's a statement. It says that we value the people providing the care, and we want to make it possible for them to keep doing this critical work. I think that's the kind of choice that's worth protecting, and the reason I'm still hopeful after everything I've-
Dr. Joel Bervell (26:00):
... Connecting. And the reason I'm still hopeful after everything I've learned about what medicine gets wrong is this. Despite everything, people still choose healthcare. We still choose the long road, the years of training, the conversations, the tears, the weight of being the person that someone calls when they're scared. And we choose it because it means something to help another human being through their worst moment of their life. To the nurse at the 2:00 AM chart, to the resident that's here probably right now that hasn't slept, to the student who's trying to get there right now and wondering if they can, to the janitor who shows up every single day and makes that place run, to the clinician who is thinking about leaving and hoping someone gives them a reason to stay, healthcare is human, means we remember the patient in the bed, but it also means remember everybody standing beside it.
(27:03)
When we support the people who make care possible by funding their training, paying them fairly, protecting them when we speak up and taking our wellbeing seriously, we are not being generous. We're being serious about what it takes to build a system that's worthy of the people it is supposed to serve. My grandmother deserves that system. Kwame deserved that system. The janitor in the hallway deserves that system. And every patient in our communities that we come from that has ever been told to wait, to come back, to go home, they deserve it too. So let's build it together. Thank you.
Katie (27:58):
Let me lower this down about a foot. Thank you, Dr. Joel Bervell. I am now incredibly excited to introduce Congressman Claudia Tenney.
Congressman Claudia Tenney (28:07):
Thank you so much. Wow, this is a great turnout. I'm so glad to see all of you there. I just first want to say thank you to FIGS. Of course, it takes two women who design clothing to make you all comfortable, to come up with this great concept and to work with us on creating and crafting this bill. And thank you to all the special guests. It's hard to follow that amazing speech. Thank you so much. Terrific. Thank you for your service and all of you for what you do. Also, thank you to the Senator. The congressmen out here are also a part of this and pushing this bill forward. I just want to let you know this is very passionate for me. My grandmother, we all have family ties to healthcare, my grandmother was an RN and she so proudly always had her little white hat, which you guys all don't really have anymore.
(28:48)
But when she graduated many, many years ago, she died 40 years ago. She was a nurse and she was so proud of that and she continued to work in the hospital. Even later on, she knit like about 35 to 40 baby sweaters and little mittens until she died, really right to the bitter end. And so inspired, my grandfather actually founded the first rural hospital in Hamilton, New York, upstate New York, in the middle of nowhere because he saw a need because we had rural healthcare issues and that was really a lot of what the brainchild for this bill was. And so we just wanted you to know that healthcare is not a line item on a budget. It's a nurse driving 45 minutes to care for an aging parent. It's a family doctor who's been delivering babies in your community for 30 years. It's the ER that stands between a farming accident and a tragedy.
(29:36)
And I have the largest agricultural district in all of New York State and the Northeast. So we have a lot of rural healthcare needs and we are desperately in need of people like you who are willing to answer this call to serve. Because it is an answer to a call to serve. You serve people and you are serving human beings and we are so grateful to you for that. And we know that the system is breaking. And just personal from my own district, just in the last two weeks, a hospital in my district announced it's closing its maternity ward. Not because of a lack of need, not because people aren't having babies, because it's a lack of staff and declining volume that made it impossible for them to meet the strain, they had to close this ward. Now people who want to have babies are going to have to drive hours just to be able to have that service from our human healthcare professionals.
(30:26)
And this is not an isolated incident. We hear about this throughout the entire region. I actually represent New York's 24th District all the way up in the Finger Lakes of New York State, if you've ever seen Lake Ontario, the border of Canada, beautiful area, but we have healthcare professional shortages and we've had them for years and we're trying to find a solution for this. And thank you to everyone who at Healthcare is Human, everyone who is part of this for helping us craft this great legislation. We are desperate and we need you and we need the training to make sure that you guys can get the training you need. A young physician right now graduates with at least, and this is a low number, $250,000 in medical school debt. That's just a small amount.
(31:12)
This is the average, average. Some places are less expensive than others. I can tell you it's probably double that in New York State. Very expensive to go to school. A nurse practitioner has to weigh their options. I mean, you really do. Can you afford to go into this field? And as the doctor pointed out, the math often doesn't work. We need to have a chance to give you guys an opportunity to get that salary differential down. We know that institutional support is often lacking, especially in urban centers. People are leaving our communities and going to other states and going to other places. This is exactly why I introduced the Healthcare is Human Act. Thank you.
(31:53)
I'm so proud alongside my co-sponsor, Congressman Horsford, who you're going to hear from next. Also Congressman Buddy Carter's here and also Senator Kaine is also here, another sponsor in the Senate. This legislation creates a tax credit for healthcare professionals who practice in underserved areas and shortage areas. It puts a real financial incentive on the table as you've heard from prior speakers. It's not a promise. It's not an application with 200 pages. It's a direct, tangible tax credit that says we value what you do and we want you to stay. We want you to continue your devotion. And what I said at the very top, we want you to make sure you continue to serve because you've answered that call to help our human friends. Thank you so much for what you guys do. We are so grateful.
(32:45)
And I just want to say thank you again to FIGS. I've got to run. I've got another committee meeting. I know the Congress members are busy, but I just want to again say thank you so much for what you do. In memory of my grandmother, you all stand out here. My grandfather who founded a hospital in a rural area. We're still going strong. The hospital's still there. My brother serves on the board, but we are desperately in need of people like you who are willing to serve and help human beings. Thank you so much. We are grateful and just God bless you all and hope you have a wonderful day in Washington. Thank you.
Congressman Horsford (33:25):
Good morning, everyone. I'm Congressman Steven Horsford and I'm proud to support the working people including the healthcare professionals of Nevada's fourth congressional district, which includes Las Vegas and central rural Nevada, over 50,000 square miles throughout the state from rural central Nevada to Las Vegas. But before I came to Congress, I led the state's largest job training program and throughout my time in public service my work has always been about centering the needs of working families and working people and to make sure you are not left behind. I'm proud to stand alongside Congresswoman Claudia Tenney as a member of the Ways and Means Committee to spearhead this legislation, Healthcare is Human Act.
(34:23)
And our message today is that no matter our district, no matter our political party, healthcare should always be about putting people first. Healthcare workers, you are the backbone of our healthcare system. You are heroes. The nurses working double shifts, the doctors serving communities already stretched too thin and the frontline workers who show up every single day, yet we ask you to carry more burden with less support. In Nevada, we've seen how provider shortage mean delayed and even inaccessible care. Every one of Nevada's 17 counties, urban and rural alike, are designated as health professional shortages area. That means longer wait times, less access to care and more strain on our essential workers, all of you. That's why the Healthcare Is Human Act matters and it's why we are all here today and it's why your voice in telling Congress that it's time to get this done.
(35:38)
This bipartisan bill provides a federal tax credit of up to $6,000 a year for healthcare professionals serving communities facing workforce shortages all across the country. So instead of giving tax credits to billionaires, let's give it to the healthcare professionals that provide the care that people need. If you are serving the communities that need it most, you deserve this tax credit. This country should show up for you too. This is about recruitment and retention and stability in our healthcare, protecting access and making sure that no community is left behind. Valuing healthcare professionals also means protecting you, supporting mental health and wellbeing. It's a tough job that you all have. God bless you.
(36:32)
It's harder than this job back behind me, ensuring workplace safety and protecting those who stand up for patient safety. So I'm proud to be here with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today to show what effective bipartisanship looks like when we work together. We are providing real solutions and investments in our communities that all constituents, regardless of background, can benefit from because healthcare access should never depend on your zip code. If we want healthier communities, we have to invest in the people who care for them. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you to the Wyle family, Noah Wyle. Thank you to the FIGS. Thank you for bringing your voice to this cause and let's go pass the Healthcare is Human Act.
Katie (37:34):
Thank you, Congressman Horsford and Congressman Tenney for her time. There are so many parts to our advocacy, like so many parts. And now it's time to get into mental health. Something that we all know about. I am honored to introduce two champions of healthcare workers in Congress and two of our lead sponsors of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Act. Please welcome Congressman Buddy Carter and Senator Tim Kaine.
Congressman Buddy Carter (38:12):
Well, thank y'all very much. I'm Buddy Carter. I have the honor and privilege of representing the first congressional district of Georgia. Anybody here from Georgia? Yeah, thank y'all. Professionally, I'm a pharmacist. For many years, I was the only pharmacist in Congress. Now we have a second pharmacist, so now I'm just the oldest pharmacist in Congress. But I understand healthcare. I understand the stress, the strain that goes along with healthcare, particularly the mental part of it. I treated many patients in my pharmacy with mental health problems. I know how important medication is. I know how important making sure that our healthcare professionals feel stable and that they are in good shape mentally. That is exceptionally important. My wife is a physical therapist. I tell a story all the time that physical therapists are some of the most patient people I know.
(39:09)
As a pharmacist in a retail setting, I was always concentrated on volume and how many prescriptions I could fill. My wife would come home at night and she'd be all excited because a patient had walked down the hall that she had been working with for three months. That would have driven me crazy.
(39:27)
But I want to thank all of you for what you do and I want to make sure you understand how important it is that you feel good. The stigma of mental health, and there is a stigma still out there even today, it's something we have to overcome. Dr. Lorna Breen, who during the early days of the pandemic, felt that strain and took her own life. That's the kind of thing that we have to be there for each other, we have to avoid. And it's extremely important. That's why I was proud to be able to co-sponsor that legislation that was passed as a result as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, an extension of that, because it is important. It's extremely important that we take care of our healthcare workers so that they can take care of our patients.
(40:25)
I want to thank each and every one of you for what you do. What you do, this is a calling. You didn't get into this profession because you wanted to make a lot of money or because you wanted to be wanted to be popular. You got into this professional because you care about people and in order for you to be able to take care of people, you got to take care of yourself. You got to make sure you're okay. We have a lot of partisanship here in Congress. Everybody knows that, the media certainly plays it up. But I would submit to you that healthcare is the one area where we work together because after all, we all want the same thing. We want accessible, affordable, quality healthcare. Everyone wants that. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, accessible, affordable quality healthcare. In order to have quality healthcare, we have to have quality workers.
(41:23)
We have to have quality healthcare providers. And in order for you to have quality, you need to feel good. You need to feel good about yourself. You need to have good mental health. Please talk to each other. Please help each other. Make sure your colleagues are okay. It might be that one time that you check on them that might make all the difference in the world. Let's avoid what we had to experience during the pandemic. This is stressful. Don't forget you are taking care of people, but don't forget to take care of yourself as well. God bless each and every one of you. Thank you.
Senator Tim Kaine (42:11):
Morning, everyone. What a great group. I'm Tim Kaine from Virginia. Any Virginians? Okay, good. And you look so familiar. I see FIGS scrubs everywhere. My wife and I live in a condo building in downtown Richmond and about half the people who live in our building work at the Medical College of Virginia, VCU Hospital, like three blocks away. I was walking out to come up to DC to do my day job a couple of weeks back and somebody was coming in wearing scrubs, FIGS scrubs. And I said, "Hey, what's up?" And this is a neighbor of mine who is a transplant nurse. She said, "I just finished a 16-hour liver transplant." And I said, "Thank God for you and what you do. " And she said, "And thank God for what you do." Thank God for what you guys do. It's really good to be here with you.
(43:05)
And I just want to say a quick word, Lorna Breen. Lorna was a Charlottesville resident who just was a tremendously compassionate and successful emergency room physician. And she was key staff at a major hospital in New York right at the beginning of COVID. And remember when COVID first hit, New York was really one of the epicenters of it. And she, as hardened a emergency room physician as she was, she was just seeing death at a massive scale. There weren't enough rooms in the hospital. It was New York Presbyterian. There were beds in the hall and beds everywhere else and morgue trucks and it was devastating. And she got COVID. And so she took as little time off as she thought she could get away with because she really felt the need to be back with her colleagues and to be back solving patients. And by the time she got back and she probably came back too soon, but by the time she got back like two weeks later, all the protocols had changed because we were still learning what COVID was and what were the likely symptoms.
(44:09)
And so what she had learned two weeks ago, she had to now do different and now the halls are even more full of people with COVID, dying with COVID, and it was too much for her. And some colleagues intervened and she went to Charlottesville and then within a week or so died by suicide. I read her story, her powerful story, and I reached out to her family in Charlottesville and said, "Is there anything I can do? " And her sister, Jennifer and brother-in-law Corey said to me, "Lorna didn't die because of the trauma of all the death and destruction around her. Lorna died because she was afraid. She was afraid to seek counseling." I said, "She's a healthcare provider." She was afraid to seek counseling because she thought if she did, it might affect her credential. It might affect her ability to practice medicine. She might have to fill out a form and tell folks she was getting counseling and then that might put an obstacle in her professional.
(45:09)
She died because she was afraid to seek mental health counseling. Jennifer and Corey set up a foundation and I worked with them to introduce the Lorna Breen Healthcare Provider Protection Act and FIGS and so many other groups, emergency room physicians and others, weighed in heavy and strong, very bipartisan, delegate Representative Carter and others, and we got it passed and then we've successfully got it funded. And the idea is let's bring down the stigma for seeking mental health. Let's make sure it's not an obstacle to getting credentialed. It's not an obstacle to licensing. You don't have to put that front and center on any application for employment. But let's also fund important programs at hospitals and with providers, but also at med schools and nursing schools and schools for allied health professionals, that can show people that asking for help when you need it isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength.
(46:06)
And we have been very, very successful and FIGS has been a huge supporter of this, thank God. And so now we've got a great bipartisan coalition and so I'm really coming just to say thank you for what you've already helped us do. We have to every year go to bat with the appropriators to try to get more funding. This issue is not going to get less important. The issue is going to get more important as healthcare needs increase. Medicaid cuts and things like that are doing nothing but raising anxieties and facilities are facing the needs to close. And so that raises the anxieties of those in the profession. But I'm with you in this. I'm with everybody in scrubs walking around my condo and we're going to keep funding the important priority of making sure that our mental healthcare providers get the healing that they need.
(46:55)
You got to be healed to heal. Thank God for what you do. It's a marathon. We'll win it. Thanks.
Katie (47:10):
Thank you, Senator Kaine. Now valuing us requires a lot of different pieces to the puzzle, right? But when you think about valuing healthcare providers, what do we think about? We need to make sure that we are okay both on and off shift, on and off shift. Within a typical day for a healthcare worker, we manage every spectrum of human emotion and human experience, grief, pain, joy, achievement, relief, chaos, life and death, and that is just a typical Tuesday. It's a typical day for us. Our decisions are so heavily weighted because human life depends on it. Someone's safety, someone's comfort, someone's stability depends on us every day, every minute of every shift without exception. The system has not built in a way to help us process these things. Wouldn't you agree? Because those things have always been regarded as part of the job. You signed up for this.
(48:27)
How many times have you heard that? Raise your hand if you ... Someone told you "You signed up for this." Yes. And while we did sign up for the service of others, we need to be set up for success. Yes, yes we do. So we can continue our work, which is the most impactful, important work on the planet. I'm going to run that back and we're going to say it together. Our work is the most impactful, important work on the planet. We're going to go one more time. I wanted to give y'all a practice round. Our work is the most important, impactful work on the planet. All right. There we go. Never forget that.
(49:23)
Mental health support has to be built into the system, not handed out when there's a crisis. Not given as a seven-minute debrief in the break room after you've coded three children. Our next speaker is somebody who knows this territory so well. She is a dear friend of mine. She is a FIGS community member. She's a pediatric ICU nurse with a master's degree in public health and she is here to share her story and I am proud to introduce Nurse Chandler Garcia.
Nurse Chandler Garcia (50:09):
First off, hello, beautiful healthcare workers. You look amazing. And hello to my fellow nurses. I'm a pediatric intensive care unit nurse and I take care of children and families on days that change their lives forever. It is meaningful work, but it also asks a lot of the people who do it. In the PICU, nurses are trained to stay calm in moments that are anything but calm. We notice every single detail, respond to every alarm and keep our own fear out of the room because our patients and their families need us to be steady. I always tell my patients to look at me when they feel afraid because I know my calm brings them peace. But being steady in the room does not mean that the moment disappears when the shift ends. You can do everything right and still leave with a story, a face, or a family that stays with you.
(51:03)
Nursing is a career built on passion, but the system has learned to weaponize our passion because they know that we will keep coming back for our patients. Then they throw us a badge of resilience in order to keep treating us poorly. While I refuse to wear this badge any longer, we deserve more. We are human too.
(51:26)
Most people see the visible parts of nursing, the monitors, the medications, the procedures, the updates to families, and the constant movement from one room to the next. But what they do not always see is what happens after these hard moments, after a child dies, after a family says goodbye, after postmortem care is done and the unit is still full and you have another patient assignment to pick up. I have seen things in the PICU that no one should have to see, especially involving children. I have stood beside parents on the worst days of their lives. I have cared for patients whose stories I still think about years later. Now I've ...
Nurse Chandler Garcia (52:00):
... two stories I still think about years later. Now, I've only been a nurse for nine years, and I can't even imagine the stories carried by nurses who have done this work for decades, but let me give you a glimpse into mine.
(52:14)
I took care of a little girl who was walking to school with her brother when a drunk driver struck her. She was intubated on the scene and brought to us as a trauma patient. As I sectioned out her airway, I pulled out bright pink bubblegum. That image has never left my mind. The innocence of a little girl walking, skipping to school with her brother when her life was taken from her. I cared for a little girl who was riding bikes with her father when she was hit by a car door. She was cleared by EMS, was sent home, and she didn't wake up the next morning because of a brain bleed. Her favorite hairstyle was space buns, so I wore space buns in her honor the day that she passed.
(52:53)
I cared for a three-year-old drowning victim whose mother made the impossible decision to donate his organs. I walked and pushed that bed for that little boy from his room all the way to the operating room. I held his mother's hand. I stroked that baby's hair. I never left their sides for his final moments on this earth, and then I came back to work the next day and assumed another patient assignment. It should not cost me my wellbeing to remain in a profession that I'm called to do. I want to be there for my tiny humans. I want to provide the emotional human-to-human connection that everybody on this earth deserves during their final moments, but especially children. But providing this connection should not cost me my own humanity.
(53:40)
I just had a baby, he's three months old, and I have an almost two-year-old daughter. And I could not feel the fragility of life more than when I look into their eyes. My past experiences and my trauma that I've pushed down for years have slowly started to resurface. When we walk to the park, I find myself memorizing license plate numbers on the cars approaching us in case one of them hits us. That's not normal. Mental health support for healthcare professionals cannot begin only when somebody is already in a crisis. By then, the system has waited too long. Real support is not just a phone number on a poster in a break room. It has to be easy to access, built into the culture and designed for the reality of healthcare work. It has to feel safe. Healthcare professionals should not worry that asking for help could cost them their license or change the ways that their colleagues view them. Asking for help should not feel like a weakness. It should be treated as part of staying healthy enough to keep caring for our patients.
(54:44)
Now, Congress has recognized this problem by reauthorizing the Dr. Lorna Breen Act. That was a major step, but reauthorization is not the finish line. Now, the programs need to be funded. Funding these programs is practical. It helps healthcare professionals stay well, helps teams stay together, helps people stay in the profession, and helps patients get care from people who are supported enough to keep showing up. Of course, mental health is only one piece of what's needed. Healthcare professionals also must be valued. Who would have thought? Fair pay will not fix everything, but it matters. It is one tangible way that shows healthcare professionals that their work, skill, and sacrifice are recognized.
(55:28)
I'm also here because we need more nurses, not less, yet the policies we're seeing today are having the opposite effect. Nursing and other healthcare careers require years of school, clinical training, and real financial sacrifice before many people ever earn a full-time paycheck in the field. New federal student loan caps make this path much harder.
Katie (55:54):
Yeah, true.
Nurse Chandler Garcia (55:55):
Especially for students who do not have family wealth or another safety net to fall back on. That matters for nursing. It matters for PA, PT, OT, speech language, pathology, audiology, and other licensed healthcare programs patients rely on every day. These are not optional roles. These are the people that patients rely on. Many of these programs are accredited, clinically intensive, and tied directly to licensure, and they should be treated like the professional healthcare pathways they are. If we make it harder for people to afford this education, fewer people will enter the fields. If fewer people enter the field, shortages get worse. And when shortages get worse, the people already in the field face even more pressure.
(56:41)
And that brings me to safety, which is what brought all of us into healthcare in the first place. Nurses are, often, the first to know when something is not safe. We know the staffing is stretched too thin when an assignment is not sustainable, or when a policy that sounds fine on paper is not working at the bedside. But speaking up can come with consequences. Too often, nurses worry that they will be labeled difficult, dramatic, or worse, for naming a problem everyone can already see. We're made to feel expendable. And if our words aren't met well, we can be replaced or let go. A system that listens early can fix problems before they become crises. A system that listens puts healthcare professionals and everyone first.
(57:26)
Now, all of this comes back to whether we are building a healthcare system people can actually stay in, and the one that the next generation can afford to join. That means we can't fix one part of the problem. We need to fix everything. The job has to be livable, the path has to be possible, and the people doing the work have to know that someone is actually listening. No matter where you live, what you believe, at some point, someone you love will need a nurse, a doctor, a therapist, a tech, or another healthcare professional to be there and to be ready. That readiness does not happen by accident. It takes people who are supported enough to stay. Students who can afford to enter the field and workplaces where speaking up is treated as part of good care.
Speaker 2 (58:07):
That's true.
Nurse Chandler Garcia (58:13):
Nurses will keep showing up because it's what we do. Now, the question is, will the system show up for us too? Thank you.
Katie (58:32):
Thank you, Chandler. Thank you, thank you. Now, I want to talk about something that we deal with every single day that almost nobody outside of healthcare actually understands. Our voices do not get the attention they deserve. Giving bad news to a patient or their loved one is complex. It is very difficult no matter how seasoned you are. But what makes those situations even worse is when we know the system failed our patient in some way and we cannot speak up about it.
Speaker 3 (59:15):
Yeah.
Katie (59:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
Yeah.
Katie (59:18):
We are the eyes, and we are the ears, and we are the hands of our patients' outcomes and experiences. And we are also the ones who know all of the factors that go into making a clinical decision. It's so much more than a diagnostic billing code or a few checkboxes on a prior authorization. If we see something unsafe, something hurting patients, putting them at risk. Or if we have an insurance company, let's say thousands of miles away, override a clinical call that we trained clinicians know is the right one, what happens if you speak up? What happens if you speak up?
(01:00:03)
Well, if you're lucky, nothing. If you're not so lucky, you can face retaliation. You can be written up, pushed out, fired. Your career can be put at risk. If you understand the weight of that scenario, you know what it's like to be a healthcare provider. Speaking up is how we care for our patients. Speaking up is non-negotiable. If you can't do one, you can't do the other. If you can't speak up, you can't take care of patients, because that is what we do.
(01:00:39)
Up next is one of the most fearless and most inspiring voices in this country on pretty much any issue affecting the healthcare workforce, but especially this one. She is a physician who has spent her career fighting for her patients, including very publicly against systems that try to override clinical care. She has lived what we are talking about. Please welcome Dr. Elizabeth Potter.
Trina Spear (01:01:07):
You guys. Oh, so many emotions today. So many emotions. I'm here to talk to you about my experience as a doctor, and over the last...
(01:01:40)
Oh, sorry. [inaudible 01:01:41]
Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
We want to hear you.
Trina Spear (01:01:42):
Oh, sorry. Okay. You got it?
Speaker 5 (01:01:43):
Support.
Trina Spear (01:01:44):
Thank you. Again, just one, thank you guys for showing up. Thank you. Thank you for the messages this year. Thank you for telling me to keep talking. Thank you for keeping me going. So, speak free.
(01:01:59)
This past year, I was doing what we all do. I was taking care of patients. I was in the operating room. I was doing the third of four really difficult breast reconstruction cases. And a phone call came. It came to the operating room desk. A nurse came in the room and said, "There's an urgent phone call for you. It's from United Healthcare."
(01:02:19)
And I was like, "What?"
(01:02:19)
"They said they need to talk to you right now." I talked to my partner, who was operating. We were finishing up the case. And I said, "I think I need to take this call," because I've seen before what can happen when I don't show up for my patients. When they say, "We need to call right now, whatever. I'm afraid something bad will happen to this woman." He said, "We're finishing. We're good."
(01:02:42)
I stepped out in the hallway, and they wanted me to tell them her diagnosis. She was having a mastectomy on the table for breast cancer. They wanted me to tell them her diagnosis and to justify her overnight stay. And I said, "Okay, got it. Here's the information." I'm completely flabbergasted. And I said, "I need to get back to my patient." I went back, finished the day, did another case as well, and left that day. And I'm a good soldier. I'm a good soldier. I'm almost 50 years old. I've always tried to do the right thing. As I was leaving that day, I picked up my phone and I said, "I just need someone to know." I need someone to know what I just experienced. I need to tell the truth. I need to speak about this because this feels so absurd. That hurt me to do that.
(01:03:31)
I filmed it. I was honest. I posted it. Some of you may have seen it. So it started with, "I'm going to tell the truth." And what I thought, what I thought would happen was that we would have a conversation about healthcare, about how we can do better. That's what I expected because that's what we do. When someone brings a problem to us, we're like, "How can I fix that problem?" That is not what happened. What happened is the big insurance company sent me a very threatening six-page letter telling me to apologize for speaking out, to remove the post, to say that I had lied, which I had not. And they said I was fomenting violence because there were comments online saying, "We hate insurance companies, et cetera." And I sat with that, and I'll tell you, you guys can imagine this. By the way, I got that as an email in the middle of the night because I take call every day. An email in the middle of the night from this law firm here in DC. I read it, and my heart rate went to like 180 because I'm a good soldier.
(01:04:42)
I'm a good soldier. I don't want to be in trouble. I thought I was just helping. So read it, and I read it a couple of times, and I'm like, "Oh, I'm scared. I'm scared." I walked to my car because I've got to go operate, do some microsurgery today. And then at some point, I started to see it. I was like, "Oh, I'm being gaslit. Oh, this is their problem and they're trying to make it about me. They didn't want me to step up and speak up." I called my sister. I told her, and she said... My maiden name is House. And she said, "We are House girls. You give them hell." We are FIGS. We give them help, right? So yeah, I decided that day. I called an attorney who agreed to take my case pro bono. I cannot... There are good people out there when you step into the universe to do the right things. They will show up. This man showed up for me. He said, "Elizabeth, do you want to make this go away or would you like to make a difference?"
(01:05:50)
And I said after about a week, because I thought, "What could they do to me?" And I talked to my husband about it. I was like, "This could be hard." And I said, "We're making a difference." So, we published the letter. You can read it now, six pages, and I let the world see how insurance companies treat us when we stand up for patients. And they had stamped. On the top of that letter, they had stamped "Confidential," and my attorney said, "Bull. Nothing confidential. Let them see it." And all I did was simply speak the truth, open the door, shine the light. I did not embellish. I was professional. I was literally just inviting the conversation. And to me, there are some rules. Speak the truth, be credible, have integrity. Don't get out there and get messy with me. This is too important. This is too important, guys. We've got to level up.
(01:06:55)
And by the way, partisanship? Our patients. Our patients deserve that every four years, healthcare is not up for debate. Period. Period. So, there is no sides. This is a right. A human right, should be an American right wherever you stand. Get in the room, get uncomfortable, have the conversation. You will not see me post the three-minute diatribe that's taking somebody down. That is not my vibe. That is not my vibe. My vibe is, where can we agree and move forward. I will sit in a room with anybody who wants to do something for patients and healthcare workers. And I tell you, that is what it's going to take from all of us. And I know it's hard. I know it's hard, but that's what we do.
(01:07:49)
I have learned in the last year, and in my life, to look for the moments when I am the most uncomfortable. The most uncomfortable. When I'm the most scared. It's like when I'm working out and I get to that point where I'm like, "I'm about to die. I think I should stop." Maybe it's better for me if I were to just stop. I'm almost 50. Just take care of my heart. But no, that moment... The moment when it hurts the most, when it's the scariest, that is when the change is happening. When you think, "There's no place for me. I'm scared to say that thing." That's the thing you need to say. That is the thing. When you think, "I'm sure other people know that we're being asked to do 30 cases a day instead of 20 this week, and it should be safe." No, that's the thing you need to say.
(01:08:45)
And the SPEAK FREE Act is really... It's really a miracle, because I was retaliated against after I went public with what that company did. And that has been really difficult for my family, and for me personally, and for my practice, and for my people, but it has been so very worth it. And I would do it again and again and again, because we are going to change healthcare in America, and that is part of the story. The other part of the story is that I don't know. I'm not so all-knowing that I know how to fix this, but I do know that telling the truth is the way to get there. And if I don't tell the truth, then I get in the way of your magic because you have to tell your truth and then the universe meets us. Do you know what I'm saying?
(01:09:37)
So I tell my truth, and then all of a sudden, I'm like, "You know what? I'm about to have to close my practice. I'm going to start a GoFundMe." America showed up and donated $850,000 to keep my practice going in 77 zeros, $70 increments. Sending me their tips, keeping me going. And then I'm struggling. I'm still being retaliated against. I don't know what I'm going to do. And then FIGS shows up. And you guys should know this, FIGS is not... This isn't just scrubs. This isn't just clothing. This is advocacy. This is actually reaching out and helping us. Without FIGS showing up to help me, when they heard what I was going through, I would not be here with my practice still open in Austin today. Okay?
(01:10:23)
They actually live it and mean it. They are not just an apparel company. They are a health advocacy organization, and they are stepping very confidently into that purpose. Very confidently. So yeah, I think what I want you to know is that the SPEAK FREE Act is something that came out of a very uncomfortable moment. Out of a challenge. Out of a time when I was like, I wanted to shy away. I wanted to say, "Maybe I should be comfortable." But you know that's just not me. All of us. Ask us to do something hard. Ask any of us. Ask us to stay up for 24 hours, ask us to clean the thing, ask us to take care of the patients. Ask me to do something hard, I am there. I'm your girl.
(01:11:14)
You ask me to do something wrong, and things are going to happen. One of two things will happen: either I choose to speak out like this or my soul is crushed. I choose. I choose to grow in that moment. So, when we are all being asked to accept a system that wants us to not do the best thing for our patients or for one another, we have to say, "We'll do the hard thing. We're going to take the hard road. We refuse to create more harm by not speaking up confidently". So I want you to know, all of you, if you speak up... For some reason, I have a little bit of a platform now, a small one, not a speaking... Even it's small, it's something. It's something. I will use that to help you. If you speak up and you face retaliation, I will show up for you.
(01:12:11)
And lastly, what FIGS did was they said, "We see you. We're going to help you. But also Elizabeth, we're going to turn that into a bill. We're going to create the SPEAK FREE Act that protects us when we tell the truth professionally about what is going on in healthcare." Because just like we diagnose disease and problems, you cannot get there unless you ask the patient what's going on. We are literally just... We have to say what's going on. That's what the SPEAK FREE Act is about. The process of curing this problem doesn't start until we start telling the truth.
(01:12:50)
So I guess, I want to say thank you. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you for showing up to help me. When I said the things I needed to say, thank you for reminding me to be strong. Thank you. Every single one of you has sent me a message and said, "Keep going." And now, what I ask of you is come along with me. Speak up. I will show up for you. FIGS will show up for you.
Katie (01:13:16):
Thank you.
Trina Spear (01:13:17):
We are changing the world. Thank you guys.
Katie (01:13:34):
Dr. Elizabeth Potter, you are us, and we support you. We support you. I mean, what a morning. Is anyone else in their feels? I've had chills the entire morning. That's what we're aiming to do, Hill. That's what we're aiming to do here. Joel Brevell, Chandler Garcia, Elizabeth Potter, three stories, three reasons of why we're here today. I also want to thank every member of Congress who came out to support us as well: Congressman Tenney, Congressman Horsford, Senator Kaine. Thank you so much. Congressman Carter. I think it shows that the lifeblood of politics is showing up for the people who show up for everybody else.
(01:14:19)
Now moving on, I know you guys are probably wondering, "All right. Are we going to get to the priority program where you bring out Noah Wyle?" Not yet. Listen, we all love Noah. We all love Noah, but Noah's not who I'm like most excited about today. The person I'm actually most excited about is the nurse who raised him: Marty Wyle. Marty Wyle is a 50-plus-year nurse, and she is one of us. And listen, you guys all know exactly who she is because every one of us has a Marty Wyle on us. She's always charged. She brings her lunch every day in the same nostalgic Tupperware, and she's the nurse who has helped all of us through a lot of our firsts. I want to tell you a little story about what I learned about Marty yesterday. So she was an ortho nurse, which means she was in and out of the OR a lot. And she was saying, "Yeah, we were decommissioning some surgical supplies. And I took a brain retractor home and now we use it as a butter knife. And Noah has that butter knife in his home."
(01:15:39)
And I said, "We all speak that language." We all speak that language. I have a lot of things in the supply room have came with me over the years. But if anybody who has been raised by a nurse, you know a nurse will set you up for success. So, please join me with the biggest welcome in bringing Marty Wyle to the stage.
Marty Wyle (01:16:22):
[inaudible 01:16:19] Good morning. Thank you all for being here today.
Katie (01:16:24):
Thank you.
Marty Wyle (01:16:25):
First, I'd like to thank FIGS for bringing us all here together. FIGS is the most forward-thinking and socially responsible company I have ever seen. I've been a nurse for nearly 50 years and I still have my current RN license. I'm a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother, and I'm Noah's mom. But standing at the Capitol today, I'm here as a nursing professional just like all of you.
(01:17:03)
Nursing has changed a lot in the last 50 years. The technology has changed tremendously. Electronic medical records have replaced physical charts and X-rays, paper charts. What has not changed is the heart of nursing. Nurses are patient advocates. You walk into a room, you see someone who's ill, injured, frightened, and you are the person they trust to get them through the next hour, the next procedure, the next treatment, and the next day. It's sacred work, but it is emotionally and physically exhausting.
(01:17:52)
I came home many shifts feeling that I had given it everything I had, but I also felt that I did not get the support I needed. When I complained-
Marty Wyle (01:18:00):
... I did not get the support I needed. When I complained, and I went to the top to complain, I actually had a hospital administrator say to me, "Get over it. Nurses are a dime a dozen." Well, we know that is not true. What I didn't expect and what I could never have imagined was that my son would grow up and use his success as a platform for nurses, doctors, technicians, social workers, therapists, and all medical professionals. He's not here today because he plays an actor on TV. He's here today because he has spent his life around people who care for others. He listens and what he hears, he translates into powerful stories, stories that help healthcare professionals feel seen, appreciated, and validated. When I began nursing, no one was rallying around for us. We didn't expect it. We just got on with it. We've been quiet for a long time. No longer. So thank you for being here. Thank you for refusing to stay silent. And thank you for letting a nurse hand the mic to her son. Please welcome Noah Wyle.
Noah Wyle (01:19:45):
Oh my God. Wow. Following my mother is a tough act anywhere. Following her at a rally for healthcare professionals at the United States Capitol is a different kind of impossible. Wow. Mom, thank you. I love you. And thank you to Katie and Chandler and Joel and Elizabeth for telling the truth so clearly and with so much grace. Thank you to the members of Congress who spoke today for your bipartisan leadership in making the change that we're talking about real. And thank you to Heather and Trina and to Figs for bringing this incredible group together and for having the backs of healthcare workers. I want to be super clear about who is talking to you right now. I am not a doctor. I am not a nurse. I am not a member in any way of the healthcare workforce that I love so dearly. I am an actor. I'm the son of a nurse who spent 50 years caring for other people and I've spent decades trying to do justice to what she and the rest of you actually do. That is the only credential I am claiming today.
(01:21:26)
Most of you know that I've been part of two shows about emergency medicine. ER when I was younger and a lot less wise, and now The Pitt. The Pitt is what happened when a group of us got obsessed with one question. What does the job actually look like right now? And to answer that question, honestly, we listened. We listened to emergency physicians. We listened to charge nurses. We listened to residents being asked to function on three hours sleep after working 18-hour shifts and they're being asked to head right back in. We listened to social workers, to techs, to attendings, to chaplains. And we did not have to go very far. The reality was right there you were all living it every day. And what I learned from this show and what is now in my bones is that medicine is hard enough, but so much of the damage is coming from everything around medicine. It is the prior auth that takes the surgery off the schedule. It is the staffing ratio that turns a manageable shift into a moral injury.
(01:22:34)
It is the tuition bill from a decade ago that still dictates where you can live and what you can afford. It is the fear of telling the truth that could cost you your job. And I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know. You came to the Capitol today because you are tired of the gap between how this country talks about healthcare professionals and what the reality is. And you came because clapping is not enough. Let me say plainly what we're asking Congress to do. One, pass the Healthcare Human Act. A federal tax credit of up to $6,000 a year for healthcare professionals serving the communities that need them the most. And let me put that into a little bit of context. The US tax code has tax credits that encourage all sorts of things like restoring historic buildings and maintaining railroad tracks, creating wells for oil and gas production, semiconductor manufacturing, even keeping distilled spirits in warehouses. And I'm not weighing in on any of those.
(01:23:37)
But if the tax code can value all of that, supporting the people who keep us alive should not be the harder call. This is not a luxury. If healthcare professionals aren't paid fairly, they leave the profession and patients get sick and die, full stop. Two, fully fund the programs of the Dr. Lorna Breen Act. Before I say another word about funding, I just want to say her name one more time. Dr. Lorna Breen. Dr. Lorna Breen was an emergency physician. She spent her life taking care of people on some of the worst days of their lives and during the early days of COVID she did what healthcare professionals do. She went toward the crisis and then she needed support in a system that still makes too many people afraid of what asking for help could cost them. I never met Dr. Breen, but I know her story because he family refused to let her death be defined by suicide. They turned her grief into action. They helped change a federal law and because of them, more healthcare professionals are able to get the support before they reach a breaking point. That is legacy.
(01:24:52)
True. And the way we honor it now is not with the applause alone. It is with action, resources and resolve. The law bearing Lorna's name provides evidence-based support for the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare professionals and we are grateful that Congress has signed this important bill into law. However, without funding it's a promise without action. Congress needs to finish the job. Three, past the Healthcare Professional Speak Free Act. When a clinician sees something harming a patient, whether it's an insurance denial, a hospital asking healthcare workers to move so fast that they can't properly treat their patients or anything else that crosses a line, they need to be able to say so out loud without losing their job and without losing their license. Because the people closest to the patient are so often the first to know when something is wrong. Speaking up is not complaining.
(01:25:44)
It is part of patient care. If honesty is punished, patients are not safer, patients are in more danger. And these things are not separate. They compound. When financial strain pushes people out, shortages get worse. When shortages get worse, the people still in the building burn out faster. When the burnout meets fear of speaking up, the things that should change stay buried. And when those things stay buried, patients pay the price. And this starts before anyone ever gets a badge. If a student can see a path into healthcare but can't afford to take it because of artificial student loan caps, we all lose. You cannot fix one of these without the other. So I'm going to wrap up with one more thing. To every healthcare professional here and every healthcare professional watching, I know you do not need another speech about how important you are. You need backup.
(01:26:39)
And this isn't about politics. Cancer is not partisan. A stroke is not partisan. A kid with a fever in the middle of the night is not partisan. The healthcare professional who shows up for that patient should not have to beg for basic support from a system that they hold together. But I do want you to hear this. The stories that you told today will not disappear into the air. They landed here in front of this Capitol. They landed in the offices behind us and they landed with the people who have the power to do something about it. So keep telling the truth, not because it's easy, not because it's fair that you have to, but because every major change in healthcare has started with somebody brave enough to say, "This is not working. It could be better." Healthcare is human. Not a symbol, not a slogan, not an endless resource, human. And a healthcare system that forgets that fails us all. So let's build one together that remembers. Thank you. Thank you.
Katie (01:27:44):
Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's get a selfie.
Noah Wyle (01:27:44):
Okay.
Katie (01:27:58):
Everyone wants to get a selfie. Let's see how this works here. Everyone get in. One, two, three.
Noah Wyle (01:27:59):
Take another on. Take another one.
Katie (01:28:24):
One, two, three. Thank you. Thank you so much. Why is the shortest person here doing the selfie when there are plenty of long arms? Oh, Marty. Yes, yes.
Marty (01:28:36):
You want me to do it?
Katie (01:28:36):
Yeah, you do it. You're taller than me.
Marty (01:28:41):
And we're doing one more long arms. Three, two, one. Oh, you're in it. Perfect. You're in it.
Katie (01:28:55):
Okay, there we go. We got everyone. Noah Wyle, my healthcare friends. Look at that. Look at that. Look at what we did today. I mean, look at this crowd. Look at this stage. Think of what we're going to do from here on out. Think of what each one of you will do when you leave here today, but you have a little bit of homework. You have a little bit of homework because the rally is the moment, the action is what comes next. And without action, nothing happens. Everyone get their phones out. Everybody who has a cell phone, get your phone out. I need you to do two things. The first thing, go to advocacy.wearfigs.com. Advocacy.wearfigs.com. Advocacy.wearfigs. com. Everybody got it. I see you, Carl.
(01:30:05)
You're going to make a few clicks because Figs has literally done all the legwork. You only have to make a few clicks and through this form you're going to call or email your congressional representatives, your house rep, and your two senators. Tell them three things. Support the Healthcare is Human Act. Fully fund the Dr. Lorna Breen Act programs and pass the Speak Free Act. Everything you need is there. We did the legwork. Make a few clicks. Send this link to your friends. Post it in your break rooms. Send it in your group chats. I know y'all got group chats. I know y'all got group chats. Number two, share what you saw today. Post about it. Use our hashtag Healthcare is human. Tell your colleagues, tell your friends, tell your neighbors. Don't let this energy die down. Today we showed up on time, loud, united, on Capitol Hill.
(01:31:08)
That is not a small feat. We must keep going. We must keep going because I know you're tired. I know you want more for our patients and for us to every healthcare professional out there at the bedside, in the clinic, behind the screen, in our schools, recovering from a 24-hour call. We know you are doing the most important work on the planet. We know you are a true value to every single person in this country and we know you deserve more and we are not going to stop until we get what we came for. We're going to go out and we're going to use our voices. The next thing is we're going to head over to Union Station where there's a party. Yes. So we're going to be there until 1:00 PM. There's going to be lunch, music, vibes, and all the good stuff that Figs is capable of doing, which is basically everything on the planet. You're going to follow the staff with the flags right in back, Kara and Cass. See those flags? Yep.
Marty (01:32:32):
Can you have them go crazy for a video shot.
Katie (01:32:33):
Yeah. Oh, awesome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we will see you guys there and we're going to get a little video shot. So I want the crowd to get real hype because what are we going to do when we leave? Use our voices. Healthcare is human. Yes. Healthcare is human. Healthcare is human. Healthcare is human. Healthcare is human. Healthcare is human. Healthcare is human. Thank you, Figs. Thank you fucking Figs. I had to say it. Thank you all for coming out. It has been an honor to be your MC. Now let's go get it cracking. I need all the speakers to the stage please for a photo. Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm so glad you [inaudible 01:33:41]. Pull it together, Katie. We do, we do. God, I'm just so glad [inaudible 01:34:02].
Marty (01:34:01):
Yes. We're going to be in here?
Katie (01:34:01):
Yeah. We're going to do like a hero shot.
Marty (01:34:01):
Nice.
Katie (01:34:04):
Can I get all the speakers and Figs team to the stage? That would be you, Noah and Marty Wyle. I need to call them out. Call a name here. We're going to get like a hero shot on stage with everybody. We'll be good to go. Sam, where do you want us for the hero shot? [inaudible 01:34:34]. You guys crushed it. Oh, great. Yeah. Yeah, move that podium.
Marty (01:34:43):
Sounds good.
Speaker 6 (01:34:43):
It's you.
Audience (01:34:43):
You know.
Speaker 6 (01:34:43):
It's you.
Audience (01:34:43):
You know. You know.
Speaker 6 (01:34:43):
It's you.
Audience (01:34:43):
You know.
Speaker 6 (01:34:43):
It's you.
Audience (01:34:43):
You know.
Speaker 6 (01:34:43):
It's you.
Audience (01:34:43):
You know.
Marty (01:39:37):
Audio okay? Everyone got audio? Yes, I mean ...
Audience (01:39:40):
[Inaudible 01:40:28]
Speaker 6 (01:39:40):
It's you.
Audience (01:39:40):
You know.
(01:39:40)
Thank you guys for having me. [inaudible 01:41:05]