Workers at Kaiser Permanente walked off the job, representing the largest healthcare strike in history. Michelle Castillo broke down what could happen next and what it could mean for patients.

<div class="block">Workers at Kaiser Permanente walked off the job, representing the largest healthcare strike in history. Michelle Castillo broke down what could happen next and what it could mean for patients.</div>

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Breaking Down the Largest Healthcare Strike in U.S. History

As, as we've been reporting workers at Kaiser Permanente, which is the largest not for profit health plan are on strike and up to 40% of its staff may walk off the job. That's 75,000 workers. News, senior reporter Michelle Castillo is here to explain what the health care employees want and what this means for patients. Michelle. Let's start with how do we get to this point? Well, J Kaiser Permanente Union which represents some of its staff in California, Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Oregon and Washington DC have been asking for more staff to join them and higher pay. The union says employees are burning out under the intense workload. And Kaiser agrees it said more than 5 million health care workers have also left their jobs. Also, they cited the stress of the career but the organization and the union failed to reach an agreement. So as of 6 a.m. local time at each jurisdiction, more than 75,000 union members went on strike. The vast 40 of those which is north of 68,000 are in California. This is the largest health care strike in history, but this strike will only go from today through October 7th. The union is not ruling out a longer strike in November. This is more a preemptive showing of how this could affect the system. Kaiser Permanente has agreed on their side to hire more 10,000 more workers by the end of 2023. But the union says it also needs increased pay to help with retention and just get more people in the door. So it wants a 6.5% increase. That's pretty substantial. So for those who aren't familiar with what Kaiser Permanente does, how does this system actually work? So this is a really interesting system. It's different from a lot of typical systems. They operate a little differently from most medical services. So usually when you go to your doctor, you pay per service. So you can, you pay at the doctor's office. However, Kaiser Permanente salaries it staff. So it doesn't matter how many people they treat, they're gonna get paid the same. It also operates a whole system, meaning that you can only go to its facilities unless it doesn't have that specialty for that you need. So for example, when I had Kaiser Permanente, if I had an accident, I couldn't go to any, er, I had to direct my ambulance, the nearest Kaiser Permanente unless there was nothing within reasonable distance. Also, when I lived in New York, um, my closest doctor for a routine checkup was actually in Washington DC because there are no New York facilities, but this also helps to manage patient care better. It says since all the records are in one place and in turn, they can do things like Shorten hospital stays. Kaiser Permanente patients pay a membership fee to access its services. It's also one of the most affordable health care plans and many employers in the states that operates offer sponsored plans. So, Kaiser has 39 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices and it serves a little under 13 million patients, 12.7 to be exact 13 million. That's pretty substantial. We want to focus on those patients. How was this strike affecting patients? Well, most doctors and nurses are still working at Kaiser Permanente. However, vocational nurses, emergency department, technicians, radiology, technicians, X ray technicians, respiratory therapist, medical assistants, pharmacists lab people are striking. So Kaiser Permanente said that hospitals and emergency services are open at this time, pharmacies are still open so you can pick up prescriptions if you're a Kaiser Permanente patient. However, you may have a non urgent appointment or procedure rescheduled during this time. Also I look many of its labs are closed. So remember it's a full system so you might not get test results processed. Also, if you're trying to call them, they said to expect longer than usual wait times. Kaiser plans increase staff to increase its staff with licensing contract and members if it's necessary. I know I mentioned it's a not for profit, but they actually made $2 billion in profit in last quarter. And I think 25 million billion in revenue. So with that much profit, I can see what workers are after right now. Yeah, it's a lot of shortage of staff and a lot of burn out, especially since the pandemic. Thanks so much Michel Castillo.