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NYS Assembly passes single-payer health care plan, Spotlight News
NEW YORK STATE — A plan to create a universal single-payer health insurance plan in New York state passed the Assembly on Tuesday, May 16, on the birthday of Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-75), the bill’s sponsor and the Assembly’s most senior representative.
The legislation, which passed with a vote of 87 to 38, has been advocated by Gottfried for years and just cleared the Assembly for the third consecutive year, having been kiboshed by the Republican-controlled Senate in 2015 and 2016. Prior to that, a universal health care bill hasn’t made it to the Assembly floor since 1992, when it also passed with a solid majority. Read the full story on Spotlight News.
LETTER: NY Health Act bill could benefit many, Gary Siegel, Middletown Times Herald-Record
There is a bill that sits in the New York State Legislature that could be a great boon to all of us. It’s called the New York Health Act. As a self-employed person with some serious health issues in my family, buying insurance on my own is a great burden. Right now, neither private insurance nor ACA are really affordable.
As a social worker in private practice - I see my patients struggling with high co-pays, sometimes 80 to 90 percent of the office visits, necessitating fewer visits than they really need, and it just gets worse year by year. Since I found out about the NY Health Act, I feel like hope is within reach.
LETTER: Senate should vote for NY Health Act, Tracy Frisch, Glens Falls Post-Star
Unlike Elise Stefanik, NYS Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner is not afraid to meet publicly with her constituents. She held a series of town hall meetings during the April legislative recess. I attended the Greenwich meeting, along with 40 or 50 other area residents. Her exchange with constituents lasted two hours.
Some of us asked her to support the New York Health Act. This critically important bill would reduce the cost of health care for 98 percent of New Yorkers. It sets up a universal, single payer system similar to Medicare — only with higher reimbursement rates for providers. All New York residents would be covered. Best of all, by taking private insurance companies out of health care, we would save $45 billion a year!
LETTER: Single-payer health care advancing in New York State, Gary Siegel, Daily Freeman
There is a bill that sits in the state Legislature that could be a boon to all of us — the New York Health Act.
As a self-employed person with some serious health issues in my family, buying insurance on my own is a great burden. Right now, neither private insurance nor the Affordable Care Act are really affordable.
As a social worker in private practice, I see my patients struggling with high co-pays, sometimes 80 to 90 percent of the office visits, necessitating less visits than they really need, and it just gets worse year by year.
LETTER: Sign for NY Health Act, Sarah Outterson-Murphy, Walton Reporter
On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that will hurt our communities and make people die younger than they have to. Under the AHCA, people in rural areas, especially the elderly and the poor, will lose most of the premium subsidies that Obamacare currently provides, even with the new tax credits. Obamacare allowed me to afford insurance for my family when I was self-employed as a tutor, and helped my family avoid going bankrupt from medical bills when we had our first child.
At the same time, Obamacare is not perfect. Costs continue to rise, and over 1.3 million New Yorkers still lack health insurance. We still don’t have “health care for everyone” as President Trump promised.
LETTER: Universal Healthcare is the Best Bet for Us, Sarah Outterson-Murphy, Oneonta Daily Star
In his letter of April 21, Representative Faso attempts to defend his proposal to allow insurance for the elderly to cost much more than is currently allowed, and his proposal to cut Medicaid funding statewide. However, with so many seniors and working people already having trouble affording coverage, Representative Faso is afraid to directly state that he supports charging people unaffordable amounts for their health care. Instead, he attempts to distract readers from this central issue by complaining that young people ought to buy more insurance, by insisting that “age banding” would merely be a state decision, and by ignoring the glaring question of how New York would maintain Medicaid coverage under his proposal.
LETTER: Support universal health care in New York State, June Finer, Daily Freeman
New Yorkers have a chance to be the leaders in the nation by passing universal health care, eliminating financial barriers to care, and allowing people to go to the doctor and hospital of their choice.
The New York Health Act is currently in committee, but could be brought up for a vote any time soon. You can help by calling and/or writing your state senator (John Bonacic, George Amedore, William Larkin, James Seward) and asking them to support S.4840.
LETTER: N.Y. should pass its own single-payer health system, James Hayes, Elmira Star-Gazette
In 2008, the World Health Organization found that the U.S. spent nearly twice as much on health care as any of the other nine countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. U.S. outcomes were far worse. Our country ranked last for life expectancy, infant mortality and preventable deaths per capita.
You ask: “Why is this?” The answer is that the U.S. has the distinction of being the only one of these 10 nations without universal health care.
LETTER: New York Health Act would expand coverage for all, Linda Resnick, Daily Freeman
Any New York resident who is concerned about health care security and who believes we all have a right to quality health care should be enthusiastic about the New York Health Act making its way through our state Legislature right now.
The act is based on a single-payer model, much like the highly successful Medicare system, and will allow people to access care when they need it instead of rationing care based on the ability to pay.
The New York Health Act has been endorsed by the state Academy of Family Physicians, the state Academy of Pediatrics, the state AFL-CIO, the state Nurses Association, New York State United Teachers and the League of Women Voters, to name just a few.
Universal healthcare supporters see their chance, "There has never been this much support", The Guardian
ALBANY — It was a cold, misty, gray, early spring day in Albany, New York – the kind of bone-chilling, turn-up-the-heat weather that encourages residents to flee to Florida.
But 500 New Yorkers were still out on the sidewalk lobbying for healthcare reform that has long seemed like a pipe dream: government-provided universal health insurance. Read the full story at The Guardian.
LETTER: Sen. Seward must step up to protect upstate interests, Leslie Berliant, Oneonta Daily Star
While I was glad to see Sen. James Seward’s support for much-needed ride-sharing services in upstate New York, I am hoping that Sen. Seward will demonstrate that he understands the economic realities of communities like ours by backing two additional measures.
... As a member of the Senate Health Committee and a Republican in a relatively safe seat, Sen. Seward is in a unique position to help guarantee New Yorkers’ health coverage. In the counties that make up New York’s 51st Senate District, ACA repeal has the potential to leave nearly 75,000 of us — including my family — without affordable health insurance.
LETTER: Check out New York Health Act, James Hayes, Elmira Star-Gazette
The news is full of talk about Obamacare, Ryancare and Trumpcare. The options given to citizens by the US Congress go from bad, to worse.
For New Yorkers, there is another way: the New York Health Act. There are bills in the New York legislature (A4738, S4371) to provide universal health care to all citizens through a single-payer system, similar to Medicare for all. The proposal has been thoroughly analyzed, vetted and endorsed by dozens of organizations. This is an idea whose time has come.
LETTER: All people are entitled to quality healthcare, Sandy Przbylak, Buffalo News
In my job as a medical assistant at ECMC, I have witnessed the struggles of patients navigating the unnecessarily complex health care delivery system. One of the most frustrating and at times heartbreaking duties of my job is to field calls from patients whose insurance companies require prior authorization for their life-sustaining prescriptions or medical tests. Currently there are hundreds of insurance plans with different requirements and processes to obtain these prior approvals.