Susan Beckley, a former medical office manager and medical billing specialist who is presently an administrator for four small businesses, explained how the NYHA will affect the people, businesses, doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes; and the financial advantages for local municipalities and school districts at a May 1 presentation organized by Yates Progressives.

Beckley, a Tompkins County resident, is seeking support to campaign for election to New York Senate. Using Yates County data, Beckley showed how local property taxes would be reduced significantly once the burden of Medicaid and municipal and school health insurance programs are relieved.

Read the rest of the article here.

Baby Boomers are not entitled to $2 trillion. They will explode the deficit, complained lame-duck Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on a recent “Meet the Press” because “Baby Boomers are retiring.”

For those of us in Riverdale who are enjoying (or anticipating) the benefits of Medicare, we need to recognize that the Congressional juggernaut that couldn’t fully repeal Obamacare last summer has now turned its sights to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Seema Verma, President Trump’s head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is urging states to add a work requirement to Medicaid, even as states across the country “cut costs” by reducing benefits — changing prescription drug protocols, increasing “prior authorization” requirements, delaying and denying life-saving therapies.

Read the full letter here.

Welfare for slackers. Medicaid and Medicare aren’t health care, but entitlements, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Now that his huge tax cut for billionaires and corporations has passed, exploding our deficit, Ryan wants to save money on the backs of the old, the poor, the sick, the disabled — and children —  by cutting benefits to Medicare and Medicaid (and then Social Security).

Medicare is our most trusted health care program. It’s not as comprehensive or affordable as it could be, but it’s lots better than most people have before they turn 65. Its public health effects are remarkable — although the United States spends twice as much as other countries, our health metrics are terrible, except for those who have been on Medicare for 15 to 20 years.

Universal health care creates healthy populations, even among the very old. And while private insurance spends 15 to 20 percent of every premium dollar on profits, marketing, executive salaries and huge bureaucracies whose jobs are to protect profits, not health, traditional Medicare spends 1.8 percent on overhead.

Why so low? Because its single-payer approach seeks no profits, and doesn’t need huge bureaucracies designed to ensure profits by denying care.

Read the full letter here.

In recent decades our US healthcare system has become a money-making operation for corporate profiteers in the guise of insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

I have been a practicing physician for years in Syracuse, and now in Tompkins County. I have spent an unhealthy amount of time dealing with insurance company obstruction. At a whim, insurance will deny coverage of previously-covered medications, or deny preventive visits. Hours of office time that could be better spent on patients goes to phone calls and paperwork. Patients who do not qualify for assistance often go without medications they need, or delay getting exams and diagnostic tests that could detect diseases like cancer in the earliest stages.

How can we, as a society, continue to dictate who gets to live a healthy, disease free life and who doesn’t?

Read the full letter here.

With so many consequential actions taking place in Albany and Washington, now is the time for engaged citizens to speak out about the issues that matter to them and to their communities.

New York Senate District 17 for Progress (NYSD 17 for Progress) was launched in 2016 by residents of State Senate District 17 (Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Borough Park, Sunset Park, Sheepshead Bay, Bensonhurst) to address key issues in our neighborhoods and state, and to directly engage our Senate representative, Simcha Felder. We felt that too many matters, such as affordable health care, criminal justice reform, voting reforms, and street safety, were not getting enough attention from the Senator or his staffers.

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We hosted a public forum on the New York Health Act — a bill advocates say could provide quality health care to every New Yorker — but our state senator declined our invitation to attend. What’s more, he has never discussed the legislation publicly in any detail, even after we were joined by 25 other community organizationswho called on him to engage in a dialogue on the bill. And during his recent push for armed security guards in schools, we sent the Senator a series of questionsasking him to explain his position and share if he would be open to new gun regulations. Once again, he did not respond.

Read the full op-ed here.

It was heartbreaking to read this paper’s story about the woman who had to postpone her marriage to keep health insurance for her daughter’s birth. What kind of a nation are we if our friends and neighbors must make decisions like this to ensure health care?

In no other democratic nation in the world must citizens delay marriages to afford health care. Peer nations provide everyone health care as a matter of right — like firefighters and police and libraries. And people in those countries are healthier and live longer.

New Yorkers can do better. 

Read the rest of the letter here.

Re: “Health insurance costs strain family resources.” That lead article in the April 2 Daily Star should surprise no one. The Affordable Care Act made promises of reduced health care costs that could not be kept. The ACA has increased premium costs to employers, employees, private payers and penalized by mandates both those who were not previously insured as well as the insurance industry. The Republican alternatives have not been any better.

Read the full letter here.

In Broome County, 64 percent of our property taxes pay for the county’s Medicaid contribution. With the New York Health Act (NYHA), this would go away. Another 20 percent could be subtracted from the county budget for the health insurance for all current and retired county employees — fire, police, library, school, etc. — paid for by county taxpayers who often have little or no health insurance.

NYHA would shave off $71 billion of New York’s $280 billion health care tab this year, which will inevitably be more next year. As Mr. Wolcott wrote, “one-third of our premium dollars are wasted on private insurers’ billing, marketing and salaries,” never mind on all the corporate mergers and takeovers.

Read the full letter here.

Under the headline “Insurers game Medicare system to boost federal bonus payments,” The Wall Street Journal reported on March 11 a practice called “cross-walking,” where insurance companies routinely shift millions of seniors in lower-rated Medicare Advantage plans to higher-rated plans so that the insurance companies might benefit from subsidies that the federal governments pays to higher-rated plans.

Sounds good, but the seniors are led to believe they will get higher value. In fact, they pay more and gain nothing in care — while insurance companies get more of our tax money to augment already record-breaking profits.

Apparently all the major insurance players participate in this “cross-walking” charade. The Wall Street Journal gave particular attention to Humana. When Humana got caught “cross-walking” seniors from Medicare plans that pay Humana less to those that give seniors less and pay Humana more, share prices plunged 5 percent — $1.4 billion drop in market capitalization. 

But share prices recovered completely upon news of increased enrollment in more profitable plans — that is, “cross-walking” 1.27 million seniors. 

Staggering numbers from the actuarial cons gaming the system.

Read the full letter here.

The Affordable Care Act was an improvement in a totally broken national health care system.

Among other benefits, it increased access for millions through the expanded Medicaid program. It prevented the denial of coverage due to pre-existing medical conditions. However, it was a bandage, not a cure. We need a real solution. We need universal health care now.

Almost 30 million Americans still have no health care coverage. Many millions more live with the risk of bankruptcy due to deductibles, co-insurance requirements and copayments. Thousands of American businesses who admirably help pay for employee health coverage are made uncompetitive relative to their overseas counterparts. Many thousands of churches, school districts and county governments struggle to maintain employee health coverage and balance their budgets as their premiums increase unpredictably and far exceed the cost of living.

Read the full letter here.

Professors Martha Livingston and Len Rodberg led a lively discussion during the Landmark’s Conversations From Main Street event on March 20 regarding the New York Health Act.

The League of Women Voters of Port Washington-Manhasset event screened the short film “Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point,” before discussing the details and implications of the bill.

“The non-partisan League of Women Voters has been a proud advocate of legislation that serves the public good since its founding six months before American women got the right to vote- as a natural extension of that movement,” explained Dr. Judith Esterquest, chair of the LWVPW-M Healthcare Committee.

“In that proud tradition, the League has supported universal healthcare, what is now termed ‘single-payer,’ for a quarter century.”  Dr. Esterquest continued, “Following equally exacting examination and analysis, the NYS League advocates for NY Health (Gottfried A4738/ Rivera S4840) and has endorsed the Campaign for NY Health, which will bring universal, comprehensive, more cost-effective healthcare to all New Yorkers.”

Read the full article here.

Many Democrats are running for Congress this year, battling each other in expensive primaries. Meanwhile, Republicans like Reps. Faso and Stefanik are piling up cash at fundraisers. Faso and Stefanik have no less than seven Democrats in each of their districts vying to face them in November.

Sure it's easy to want to focus on Congress, but why no emphasis on the thousands of local seats lost by Democrats over the past 10 years? Democrats may be missing a chance to build their bench and invest in the future by winning back some of these seats.

The New York state Senate holds promise for Democrats, with a chance to take the majority and pass progressive reforms. Universal healthcare in the form of the New York Health Act (NYHA) has passed the Assembly for years and is nearing majority support in the Senate.

Read the rest of the letter here.

Regarding the letter from Heather Briccetti, president and CEO, Business Council of New York State, "Single-payer system would be utter disaster," Feb. 7), I thank Briccetti for bringing the discussion of single-payer health care finance into the public eye with her response to Howie Hawkins' commentary (Opinion on the Web: "Single-payer would save N.Y. billions," Jan. 30). However, Briccetti's response includes serious errors.

Briccetti writes that the "plan would remove choice in health care." This is false. With a single-payer system, the patient has free choice of doctor, hospital or other provider. Insurance companies, for which there will no longer be choice, do not provide health care.

Briccetti writes the proposal would "raise taxes by more than $200 billion." This also is false. Assessments on earned and unearned income will amount to $92 billion. The largest financing will come from Medicare and Medicaid. Payroll assessments replace today's health insurance premiums. There will be no additional out-of-pocket expenses (co-pays or deductibles). In fact, 98 percent of New Yorkers will pay less for health care than they do now.

Read the rest of the letter at the Times-Union here.

Joel and Catherine Wolf’s story seems to underscore the contradictions of American medicine.

The Katonah couple worked as a top IBM research team that improved how humans interact with computers, and Catherine Wolf died this month after an extraordinary 22-year battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Joel Wolf described his wife’s fight with the rare neurological disease as unique. It gained notoriety because she lost the ability to speak and used her eyebrow to control a computer and communicate. 

The high-tech breakthrough, however, is only part of what made her situation different.

Catherine Wolf’s lengthy struggle with the costly illness led to her advocacy for creating a single-payer or ‘Medicare-for-All’ system in New York and across the country, Joel Wolf said. She died Feb. 7, at the age of 70.

Read the full article at The Journal News here.

For-profit health care is unsustainable. Soaring costs and the number of medical bankruptcies make that seem obvious.

The drag on small businesses, the most important drivers of our economy, is counterproductive. As the number of health insurance companies goes up competing for profit, the cost of insurance is supposed to go down.

But with 15 percent of insurance company expenses going to advertising, and record profits going to shareholders and CEO salaries, costs are not going down.

Read the full letter at the Riverdale Press here.

On the same day CNN reported about a California lawsuit against Aetna for denial and delay of a life-saving procedure, President Trump proposed cutting Medicare 7.1 percent ($500 billion through 2028), and Medicaid by 22 percent ($680 billion). Both Aetna and Trump defend their decisions by decrying “wasteful treatment.”

The lawsuit against Aetna is by a college student with a rare immune disorder. The California insurance commissioner, now involved, was appalled when he read a pre-trial deposition — specifically that “during the entire time he was employed at Aetna as its medical director in charge of appeals, the doctor ‘never once looked at patients’ medical records,’ testifying under oath that he relied on nurses’ recommendations, which he followed.”

Read the full letter at the Riverdale Press here.

n the last legislative session, the New York Health Act, a single-payer bill that would bring universal, comprehensive, cost-effective healthcare to every New Yorker, passed the NY State Assembly 94 to 46 and had 31 co-sponsors in the New York State Senate — just one vote shy of a majority.

New York Health has had far too little public conversation. Our current multi- payer healthcare system is financially unsustainable, and leaves millions of New Yorkers uninsured and under-insured. NY Health would cover every New Yorker with comprehensive benefits, and a recent economic study by Gerald Friedman of the University of Massachusetts concluded that NYHA would save us $45 billion per year over what we pay now. How is that possible?

Read the full article at the White Plains Examiner here.

Jeff Collins, of Woodstock, announced last week his plans to run as a Democrat for the New York State Senate 46th district.

The district includes parts of Ulster, Albany and Schenectady counties, as well as the entirety of Greene and Montgomery counties. The seat is currently held by Republican Sen. George Amedore.

“I believe in universal healthcare,” Collins said. “To me, healthcare is a right, not a privilege given only to those who can afford high premiums and high deductibles.”

Collins noted that the state Assembly overwhelmingly passed the New York Health Act, which had the potential to ensure universal healthcare for all residents. However, the Senate did not bring the bill up for a vote.

“If I am elected, I will push to get the New York Health Act passed by the Senate and enacted as soon as possible,” he stated in the release.

Read the full article at The Recorder here.