Advocates asking for health coverage for all New Yorkers
By MARIA BRANDECKER
Legislative Gazette Staff Writer
Mon, May 12, 2008
Supporters of a single-payer health care system held a rally outside the Capitol in Albany last Tuesday urging state and federal leaders to ensure all Americans get coverage.
Representatives from the New York State Nurses Association, the Troy Area Labor Network, Hunger Action Network of New York State and Capital District Alliance for Universal Healthcare, along with others, chanted: “Everybody in, nobody out,” and sang “Single Payer for All” by singer-songwriter, Ruth Pelham, executive director of Music Mobile Online.
The groups advocated for a single-payer system that would finance health care for the entire population through a single source, for example, the government, from funding that would be collected through progressive taxation of citizens and businesses.
“What we really want to get back to is medicine as a profession and a social good instead of a commodity,” said Capital District Alliance for Universal Healthcare Chairman Dr. Richard Propp.
The advocates are pushing for the passage of the U.S. National Health Insurance Act, a federal universal health care bill (H.R.676) introduced in Congress. On the state level, they want to see the Legislature pass Assemblyman Felix Ortiz’s, D-Brooklyn, proposed resolution (K.779) in the Assembly in support of H.R.676. Ortiz’s resolution was referred to the Assembly Insurance Committee last year, but no action has been taken on it in 2008.
The groups were also calling on Legislature to pass a bill that would establish a system of universal access to health insurance for New Yorkers by enacting the “New York State Health Plan.” The bill (A.07354/S.3107) is sponsored by Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, and Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D,WF-Manhattan, a member of the Senate Health Committee.
The legislation would aim to increase health coverage for the more than 3 million New Yorkers who are uninsured or lack adequate coverage.
The bill would cover health services including preventative care, prescription drugs and mental health services. Under the plan, health coverage would be extended to all residents regardless of age, income or employment status. The plan would be administered by an independent public benefit corporation consisting of an 18-member board of governors appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
The bill justification states a single, publicly financed, insurance program would eliminate more than $5 billion in administrative waste from insurance companies, including the costs associated with billing and collecting for hospitals, physicians and other health care providers. It, according to the justification, would also provide stability to New York’s hospitals and free up resources for patients.
Savings realized from the program, according to the justification, would be used to finance the training of health care workers, pay for primary and preventive services, and help physicians set up practices in inner cities and rural communities.
The bill was referred to both the Assembly Health Committee and Senate Finance Committee on Jan. 9.
“It is always a question of cost and how you would pay for that,” Scott Reif, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, R,C,I-Brunswick said.
Reif did not say whether Bruno would support a universal health care system for New York. But Reif did say the state is facing “real fiscal challenges,” and one of the Senate GOP’s initiatives is aimed at making health care more affordable.
“In the Senate we have taken action to make health care more affordable and accessible to as many New Yorkers as possible,” Reif said. Reif mentioned the Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus programs as well as the Senate’s efforts to help small businesses provide health insurance.
Matt Funiciello, owner of Rock Hill Bakehouse in Glens Falls, Warren County, said he is unable to afford health care for his 40-person staff. Funiciello encouraged legislators who do not support universal health care to take off their “political and mathematical hats” and put on their “small business and workers hats.”
Propp said he and others lobbied to get $200,000 in the state budget last year to study the various universal health care plans and decide which one would be best for New York. Propp said the Urban Institute was hired to conduct the study. The Urban Institue conducts nonpartisan economic and social policy research.
“We want the single-payer plan to be given a fair shake, and we want the process to be transparent and the public to have a say … we just want them [the Urban Institute] to follow through with a fair process.”
“Nurses firmly uphold health care is a right not a privilege,” said Deborah Elliott, deputy executive officer of the New York State Association of Nurses. Elliott, who has been a registered nurse for 30 years, said she has seen New York nurses “pick up the pieces of our broken health care systems every day.”
Elliot said many New Yorkers delay treatment because they are uninsured, and there needs to be an increase in preventative care.
“Health care for all is what we need, health care for all is what we want, and health care for all is what we deserve,” said Elliott.