2019 IN REVIEW, December 29, 2019

What would New York be like if some Democrats get their way and pass the New York Health Act — the legislation that would create a general public single-payer health care system for the first time anywhere in the United States?

The Riverdale Press actually explored that in October, talking to a number of doctors, politicians, and even future doctors. Like Joseph Tharakan, who is working his way to earning his medical license at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Morris Park.

“In medical school, we never get any education on how health insurance works,” Tharakan said. “We learn all the science, but nothing about the money or insurance or malpractice or anything.”

But one of the biggest questions is how would New York pay for it? In fact, that’s one of the key factors that prevented the New York Health Act from coming up this past session, and will likely continue to curtail it until those issues are worked out.

“You want to do it right, and not sloppy,” said state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who campaigned as a proponent of the New York Health Act. “If we’re going to do this, we can’t fail. It would just provide ammunition to the arguments on why this program doesn’t work, so we have to do it right.”

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