Lower Manhattan Residents, Lawmakers, and Hospital Workers Join Forces to Save Historic Community Hospital, Beth Israel Medical Center (Dec. 3, 2023)

For the last month, we’ve been very busy over the last few weeks trying to prevent Mount Sinai Health System from closing down Beth Israel Hospital. We’re building an ever-growing coalition of Lower Manhattan residents, community activists and leaders, local public officials, and hospital workers. We’re all joining forces to try to preserve the last remaining community hospital for much of this part of our city so that the area doesn’t become another hospital desert.

We’re hitting the streets this coming Thursday morning, December 14 for a Community Rally that is being hosted by NYC Councilmember Carlina Rivera and many of her local colleagues from the City Council, State Legislature, and Congress. We’re all gathering at 11 a.m. on the corner of 1st Ave. and East 17th St. outside Beth Israel Hospital.

Please join us then to send a loud-and-clear message to Mount Sinai officials and State and City leaders to “Save Our Community Hospital!” Beth Israel has a long history as the safety net hospital for one of our city’s most diverse areas that has welcomed waves of immigrants over many decades, and has served a significant working class and low-income population.

If you can’t make this rally (or even if you can), you can support it by using this social media toolkit before, during, and after it.

Here are publicity materials about this rally to share around:

If you can’t make this rally (or even if you can), you can support and amplify it by using this social media toolkit before, during, and after it.

Individuals and groups and businesses can also join in this campaign by filling out these sign-up forms.

Why we are in this fight:

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become abundantly clear that our hospital care system in New York is WAY out of balance. Hospital beds are being increasingly concentrated in more affluent, more racially homogenous, medically well served neighborhoods where well-insured people live, while hospitals are closing and hospital deserts are being created in areas where lower-income, racially diverse, medically-underserved, and uninsured people live and work. This dynamic is morally wrong, and doesn’t benefit everyday New Yorkers, nor our shared public health.

This current crisis at Beth Israel is just the latest example of “what’s wrong with this picture.” The good news is that similar community-led fights about local community hospitals are happening across our state in Central Brooklyn, Mount Vernon, Schenectady, and Troy. People are coming together and fighting back. We are proud to be helping to lead the statewide Community Voices for Health System Accountability project that brings health advocates together with local community activists to collaborate and support each other.

It’s time for our state and city leaders to act to restore regional health planning that was eliminated nearly three decades ago, and to adequately support community hospitals with the resources they need to meet their mission, rather than continue to rely on the “magic of the market” to sort it all out. It’s clear that approach doesn’t work, and it merely benefits the already well-off at the expense of those who have much less and are struggling to get by day-to-day, week-to-week.

Government regulators also must strengthen their ongoing oversight of the hospital industry and enforce existing laws and regulations to assure that the rules aren’t bent and evaded, so that all New Yorkers have access to hospital care in our communities. Large hospital networks must be held accountable for ALL the communities they are supposed to serve, and not just protect and grow their central hub facilities.

There’s an old saying that “all health care is local”, and we as a city and state must refocus on that goal. By fighting to preserve Beth Israel Hospital, we are advancing the larger goal of health care access for and within all communities across our city and state.

New York Health Care Advocates Mobilize to Oppose a New “Special Commission” to Slash Medicare, Medicaid, & Social Security (Nov. 3, 2023)

They’re at it again! Once more trying to slash our bedrock social programs Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security – this time via “special commission” that the White House aptly characterizes as a “death panel” for these programs.

It’s time for everyone to speak out against this idea!

Here is an organizational sign-on letter for your group to endorse, from our national partners at Social Security WorksThe deadline is next Tues. Nov. 7th, so please act on this request quickly!

Getting a good number of NY groups listed on this letter will help send a strong message to our two key champions in Congress: Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (from NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (from Brooklyn.) We have a unique opportunity and obligation to our kindred spirits nationwide to engage both of them on this matter.

Background and Current State-of-Play:

In the last 117th Congress (2021-22), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) introduced the “TRUST Act” that would have created a special commission to develop proposals to slash spending on and change the fundamentals of these programs. It would have operated behind closed doors outside of the regular congressional committee process, and then their ideas would have been fast tracked through Congress by allowing only minimal debate and no amendments with an up-or-down vote on an entire package.

The House Budget Committee is now trying to move a similar proposal forward, and the new House Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled that he intends to try to attach it to various spending and budget bills that will be moving to the House floor in the coming weeks. They also have a new tax cut bill for corporations, and want to rescind new funding provided to the IRS to go after rich tax cheats, both of which would increase federal debt substantially.

Needless to say, we health care advocates fiercely oppose this special commission idea, for both process and policy reasons.

Fortunately, the public is very much on our side. Polling shows that people across the political spectrum strongly oppose this special commission idea. Instead, we everyday people much prefer that Congress IMPROVE & EXPAND these programs, and pay for them by requiring special interests, large corporations, and the ultra-rich to “pay what they owe” and “pay their fair share” of taxes.

Update on the federal budget process and health care bills in Congress (Oct. 6, 2023)

If you’ve been following the news out of Washington DC over the past week, you know it’s been a complete fracas within the House of Representatives on the Republican side of the aisle. Here’s what went down, and how it relates to health care issues and bills.

Continuing Resolutions vs. Government Shutdown

Late last week, House Republicans serially put forward two “Continuing Resolution” (CR) proposals to keep the federal government temporarily funded, open, and operating. The larger backdrop for this situation is the failure of Congress to enact 12 appropriations bills that comprise the annual federal budget before the start of the new federal fiscal year on October 1st. Theoretically, this year these bills are supposed to conform to a broad budget outline laid out in the Fiscal Reduction Act (FRA) that was enacted last spring to avert the federal government from defaulting on its debt.

The first CR (HR 5525) taken up Friday afternoon (Sept. 29) reflected the demands of many conservative Republicans, in violation of the FRA deal. It contained large spending cuts to “discretionary” social programs, spending increases for national defense and homeland security, creation of a special commission to cut spending for “mandatory programs” (i.e., Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid), and a host of non-budget “hot button” social issues (like restrictions on reproductive freedom for women and health care for transgender people.) Here’s a good summary of what was in this first CR and its predicted impacts.

This CR failed to pass the House because the spending cuts weren’t deep enough for a small number far-right Republicans, so they voted against it. The Democratic Minority opposed it because of the spending cuts, the special commission idea, and the social issue riders.  All NY Republicans voted for this CR, and all NY Democrats against.

A second CR (HR 5860) taken up Saturday afternoon (Sept. 30) reflected a bipartisan consensus that has been emerging over in the Senate. It was a “clean” CR that just kept the current FY 2023 federal budget in place with no spending cuts or special commission or extraneous social issue riders. There was also a bit of new special spending to help states and localities respond to recent natural disasters (floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, etc.) All Democrats (but one) joined with slightly more than one-half of the Republicans to pass this new CR, and it then was sent over and passed by the Senate and then signed by President Biden. All Reps. from New York (both Republicans and Democrats) voted for it.

Political sideshow: This result triggered a revolt among a small group of far-right Republicans in the House such that they undertook a successful effort to remove House Speaker McCarthy earlier this week. Now the House is unable to undertake any legislative business until a new Speaker is chosen. An interim speaker is in place to oversee that process, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC).

Appropriations Bills for a FY 2024 Federal Budget

Meanwhile, the process to adopt an annual budget for FY 2024 resumes as House committees continue their work to finalize their ideas for various appropriations bills – the Senate has completed the committee process on a bipartisan basis.  We health care advocates will be paying attention to the “Labor-HHS” appropriations bills that cover all things health care. We’ll also be focusing on renewed funding for community health centers and safety net hospitals.

The new deadline for enactment of all these appropriations bills in agreement with the Senate and White House is now Fri. Nov. 17, in order to avert a government shutdown. It’s also possible that another CR process may have to take place then.

Our basic message to Congress remains: “Stick to the bipartisan agreement enacted last spring under the Fiscal Responsibility Act as you finish up the appropriations bills. Any special commission proposal and social issue riders should be set aside during this budget process, and debated separately at another time.

Stand-Alone Health Care Bills

1.  Health care costs and transparency — Since the beginning of this year, committees in both the Senate and House have been crafting modest, bipartisan bills to a) regulate “pharmacy benefit managers” (PBMs), and b) improve transparency with regard to health care prices, particularly hospital-based services.

On the House side of things, various bills have been packaged together into the “Lower Costs, More Transparency Act” (HR 5378) – here’s a summary of the bill’s provisions. No members of New York’s House delegation –either Republicans or Democrats– are yet on this bill as co-sponsors.

On the Senate side, we await a package that will combine proposals from the Finance Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. It is expected to come forward later this fall once the budget process is done. Once it is out, negotiations will commence between the House and Senate and White House to come to agreement on a final bill that may pass by the end of this calendar year.

2.  Rx drugs – The historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is taking on the pharmaceutical industry in various ways to rein-in its long-running and widespread price-gouging and profiteering practices. However, this new law’s scope is limited to Medicare. The “Lower Drug Costs for American Families Act” (HR 4895) will build out the IRA’s Rx drug provisions beyond Medicare to other kinds of health insurance – here’s a summary.

So far, only 5 House Reps. from NY are co-sponsoring this bill: Goldman, Meng, Morelle, Nadler, and Tonko. It’s important to reach out to the rest of the delegation about it, to build momentum. No companion bill has yet been introduced in the Senate, but one is in development and expected out later this fall.

It’s important to note that public opinion research shows that support for taking on Big Pharma to lower drug prices and costs for patients is exceptionally high across the political spectrum, so this bill is a slam-dunk winning issue for us to push forward.

3.  Reproductive Freedom – The Women’s Health Protection Act (S.701/Baldwin, HR 12/Chu) would create a national law to guarantee the right to provide and access abortion care. Here is a bill summary. New York co-sponsors include Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and all Democratic Reps. (Bowman, Clarke, Espaillat, Goldman, Higgins, Jeffries, Meeks, Meng, Morelle, Nadler, Ocasio-Cortez, Ryan, Tonko, Torres, Velazquez.)

4.  Universal Health Care — Finally, we want to remind everyone that Medicare-for-All bills were introduced this past spring in each chamber, a goal we have supported for three decades now. These bills would create a truly universal health care program covering all Americans, and they have significant numbers of co-sponsors. HR 3421/Jayapal-Dingell has 112 co-sponsors, including 12 from NY (Bowman, Clarke, Espaillat, Goldman, Higgins, Meeks, Meng, Nadler, Ocasio-Cortez, Tonko, Torres, and Velazquez), S.1665/Sanders has 14 co-sponsors including Sen. Gillibrand from NY. Sen. Schumer supports it too, but given his position as Majority Leader he typically does not co-sponsor bills.

Given the current political constellation of Congress, neither of these two latter bills are expected to move forward at present.  However, they are important “goal bills” to point to as we focus also on those bills that are moving ahead. For us, our advocacy is never an either-or matter, but always a both-and one. We know it’s essential to focus on both longer-term and immediate matters to be most effective, and that a crucial political synergy exists between them – each effort enhances the other.

We urge everyone to reach out to your own member of Congress about any or all of the above matters, as well as Senators Schumer and Gillibrand.

Health Care, Child Welfare, and Family Support Groups Circulate Sign-on Letter to NY State Legislature re: Racial Equity Impact Statements (Oct. 17, 2023)

In recent years, an emerging priority in social justice advocacy is to center advancing racial equity in one’s work, whatever the particular policy issue at hand may be. Given our nation’s long history of racism in all aspects of our society, we couldn’t agree more.

For over a year now, we’ve been working to advance this important goal as part of an ad-hoc coalition led by our colleagues at the Children’s Defense Fund of New York. Its joint effort is focused on the New York State Legislature. This group is promoting the general idea that all legislative and administrative initiatives addressing health, child well-being, and family economic mobility should be evaluated before adoption to assess its impacts with regard to improving racial equity.

Organizations who support this idea can sign-on to a letter to addressed to state legislators that calls on them to craft and pass legislation to require that all executive agency rules and regulations and all legislative bills include a “racial impact statement”.  Here’s where you can read the sign-on letter, and here is how an organization can endorse the letter.

Today’s the Day to Celebrate the IRA and Defend Medicare Rx Drug Price Negotiations! (Aug. 16, 2023)

One year ago today, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law. A major focus of this law are provisions to begin to lower Rx drug prices and out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare and the Medicare program.

For the first time ever, Medicare will soon begin negotiating lower prices with drug corporations, reversing a ban that was put in place two decades ago by drug industry lobbyists when Medicare Part D was created. However, major drug corporations and their business allies are now suing Medicare to stop this new negotiation process.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone today at our rally to “Save Medicare’s Lower Drug Prices!”. We’re gathering at 12 noon outside the NYC office of Jones Day, the notorious right-wing law firm, located at 250 Vesey Street, along the Hudson River just west of the World Trade Center complex in lower Manhattan. Jones Day is representing two major drug corporations that have filed these lawsuits against Medicare: Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck.

Here’s all the information about our rally.

We’re also asking everyone to post items to your social media platforms about today’s anniversary. Here’s a handy toolkit you can use.

In addition, Senator Schumer’s office has reached out to us about an IRA anniversary video they are releasing at 9 a.m. today on his social media platforms, asking people to view and share it.

Here’s how the IRA is and will help people on Medicare afford the medicines they need:

  • This year (2023)…  All vaccines are now free; insulin co-pays are capped at $35 per month; annual manufacturer price increases are limited to the general inflation rate (historically it’s been 3 times higher.)
  • Next year (2024)… Premium increases for Medicare Part D are limited to 6% per year; the 5% co-pay is eliminated for Part D’s catastrophic coverage phase; eligibility for financial assistance to help pay Part D premiums is expanded to more low-income people.
  • 2025… Total annual co-pays for medicine are capped at $2,000 per person.
  • 2026… Lower negotiated drug prices go into effect.
  • 2027 and beyond… More and more drugs are added into the negotiation system each year.

More background information is available here from our partners at the Medicare Rights Center. For a deep policy dive into the IRA and Rx drugs, here’s a really good slide deck from Kaiser Family Foundation.

New York Health Advocates to Celebrate and Defend Two Important Social Justice Laws this Week! (Aug. 14, 2023)

Today we celebrate the 88th anniversary of the Social Security Act being signed into law! Over nearly a century, it has since become a bedrock of social justice policy and law in the United States, growing to encompass many important health and economic security programs, most notably unemployment insurance, workers compensation, retirement income, disability insurance and SSI, maternal and child health and welfare, and Medicare and Medicaid.

Social Security programs are beloved and highly valued by people across the US, across the political spectrum. Yet there are still forces who want to scale it back or privatize it in the name of supposedly “saving it” and the ideas they talk about would actually undermine it as a social insurance program benefiting millions who live paycheck-to-paycheck.  

There are simple ways to stabilize the Social Security Trust Fund for many years into the future, such as lifting the cap on annual income subject to FICA contributions. In addition, there are bills in Congress to actually strengthen and expand Social Security to provide more help to more people. Meanwhile, House Speaker McCarthy says he favors setting up a special commission to fast-track changes behind closed doors – we know that’s a really bad and scary idea that will threaten the financial security and health of tens of millions of people and families.

How best to celebrate Social Security:

  • Join a special virtual town hall today at 1 p.m.(E) on either YouTube or Facebook.
  • Contact Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and YOUR House Rep. and tell them to reject Speaker McCarthy’s special commission idea. Urge them to instead support the Social Security Expansion Act (S.393/Sanders, HR 1046/Schakowsky) and the Social Security 2100 Act (S.2280 Blumenthal, HR 4583/Larson)
  • Watch this terrific recent webinar about the history of Social Security and what can be done to protect and improve it:

AND IN ADDITION…

There’s one other, NEW anniversary happening this Wed. Aug. 16 – the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law just one year ago. It is taking historic steps to lower Rx drug prices and co-pays for people on Medicare, and it can be built on to lower drug prices for people with other kinds of insurance over time.

We’re marking this new political holiday by holding a protest against the greedy drug corporations who are suing Medicare to stop its new Rx drug price negotiation program that will start to move ahead publicly in just 3 weeks on Sept. 1st.

Here’s all the information on our protest. Please join us this Wed. at noon in lower Manhattan, along the Hudson River adjacent to the World Trade Center complex. Here are social media resources you can also use.

Sign these online documents to tell Big Pharma CEOs to “Stop Suing Medicare!” (Aug. 10, 2023)

They lost in Congress last year, and now they’re turning to the federal courts!  (Sound familiar?)

Big Pharma and its allies are trying to stop Medicare’s new Rx drug price negotiation program before it even gets going. Four drug corporations and two of their business allies have filed lawsuits against Medicare: Astellas, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen, Merck, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures Association (the industry’s political lobby), and the US Chamber of Commerce.

What’s at stake in this tug of war? Nearly $162 billion in savings to Medicare and people on Medicare over the next decade that will finally lower drug prices.

Here’s what YOU and your organization can do to tell the CEOs of these lawsuit filers what you think:

  • Individuals can sign this online petition that calls on them to “drop your lawsuits, and drop your prices!” The goal is 100K signatures by the beginning of next week – over 70K have already signed it!
  • Organizations can sign on to this letter to these CEOs that says the same. The goal is 100 groups by next week, and over 55 have already done so.

Please spread the word to invite other people and groups to sign on to these two documents.

Patients in the US have been getting ripped off by drug corporations for years. These companies have charged us two to three times more than what people in all other industrialized countries pay for medicine. In the meantime, these firms are among THE most profitable in the world, and their CEOs make multi-millions every year.

Finally, don’t forget to join us for our “Save Medicare’s Lower Drug Prices!” rally taking place next Wed. Aug. 16 at 12 noon outside the NYC office of the notorious right-wing and anti-union law firm, Jones Day. It’s located at 250 Vesey St. (at the Hudson River) in lower Manhattan, just west of the World Trade Center complex. Jones Day is the law firm for Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck for their Medicare lawsuits. Full details and resources about the rally are here.

Be there! New York Health Advocates & Activists to Demand Big Pharma Stop Suing Medicare Over Drug Price Negotiations (Aug. 5, 2023)

NYC Rally to “SAVE MEDICARE’S LOWER DRUG PRICES!”

Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck are both suing Medicare to block its new Rx drug price negotiation program before it even gets started!

The notorious Jones Day is their law firm.

___________

Join New Yorkers to demand that BMS and Merck:

“Drop Your Lawsuit, Drop Your Prices!”

___________

Wed. Aug. 16 @ 12 noon

Outside the NYC office of Jones Day

250 Vesey Street (at Hudson River) in Lower Manhattan

RSVPs and more info:  https://bit.ly/Aug16NYCMedicareRally

Outreach & promotion materials to share:

What else to do:

  • Organizations are asked to sign-on to this letter jointly addressed to the CEOs of the entities that are suing Medicare (Astellas, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen, Merck, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Assoc., US Chamber of Commerce.)
  • Individuals can sign this online petition also addressed to these CEOs.

Sponsors [list in formation]:

  • ACT UP New York
  • Be a Hero
  • Center for Independence of the Disabled New York
  • Center for Popular Democracy
  • Citizen Action of New York
  • Council of Municipal Retirees Organizations
  • Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee
  • Health Care for America Now
  • Health GAP
  • Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility
  • Lower Drug Prices Now
  • Make the Road New York
  • Metro New York Health Care for All
  • New Jersey Citizen Action
  • New York Progressive Action Network
  • New York Statewide Senior Action Council
  • Northwest Bronx Indivisible
  • Patients for Affordable Drugs
  • People’s Action
  • Public Citizen
  • Physicians for a National Health Program, New York Metro Chapter
  • Professional Staff Congress CUNY
  • Rise and Resist
  • 1199SEIU / GNYHA Healthcare Education Project
  • 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
  • Social Security Works
  • Universities Allied for Essential Medicines

Additional group sponsor sign-on form here.

Note: Co-sponsorship means that a group agrees to promote this rally through its networks, and will work to have a contingent participate. Organizational banners are welcome!

Rally endorsers (for public officials and community leaders only) [list in formation] Endorsement form here

  • Rep. Dan Goldman (NY-10)
  • Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY-12)

Time to Celebrate Medicare’s 58th Anniversary! (July 25, 2023)

We all believe in and support Medicare as the basis of a universal health care program here in the US. To bring that about, we know that we have to simultaneously defend it, improve it, and expand it.

Medicare is a bedrock of our nation’s health care system, and millions of New Yorkers and people across the US have benefited from it since it came into being over half a century ago. Like any public program, it has been improved and expanded over the years, while others have continuously been trying to scale it back or privatize it. We can never let down our vigilance!

Medicare’s anniversary is coming up soon (July 30th). Here’s how you join the celebration!

Anniversary Street Party!  Various groups are gathering this coming Fri. July 28th at 12 noon on the plaza outside the NYC offices of our two US Senators from NY, Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, located in midtown Manhattan at 780 Third Ave. (at E. 48th St.) Sponsoring groups include (in alphabetical order) Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Metro New York Health Care for All, New York Public Library Retirees Assoc., New York Statewide Senior Action Council, Physicians for a National Health Program – New York Metro Chapter, and Professional Staff Congress CUNY [list in formation.]

Defending Medicare’s new prescription drug price negotiation program: One of the most exciting new developments on Medicare’s horizon was created a year ago as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the face of fierce opposition from Big Pharma. Its opponents are not letting up, and (so far) six drug corporations and their business allies have filed lawsuits to nullify it, and their political shills in Congress are also filing bills to repeal the program.

This new Medicare program is being rolled over the next two years and go into effect starting in 2026. As the first step, this coming Sept. 1st, Medicare will announce the first group of medicines that will be subject to the new price negotiation process. Public opinion research shows that the IRA’s prescription drug reforms are very popular with the public across the political spectrum – you can read more about that here.

Health care advocates and activists nationwide are launching a 6-week “Countdown to Lower Drug Costs” mini-campaign that is taking place over the upcoming congressional summer recess from late July to early Sept., from Medicare’s anniversary to the IRA’s anniversary (Aug. 16) to Labor Day Week. We’ll be celebrating this exciting accomplishment, letting people know what’s coming when under the IRA to lower drug costs for people on Medicare (there are various measures – some already underway), and calling out the bad actors who are doing all they can to protect Big Pharma’s rapacious price gouging and profiteering.

We’re working with our partners in the New York State Network of the national Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and Lower Drug Prices Now (LDPN) campaigns to plan some activities in the NYC area for the IRA’s anniversary on Wed. Aug. 16, so keep your eye out for more information once the basic details are confirmed.

As a curtain raiser to Aug. 16, we are joining with our HCAN and LDPN partners across the River in New Jersey for an event taking place later this week that is focusing on the lawsuits filed by drug corporations. Please contact us directly for more information on that so that you can participate if you are interested.

We thank everyone for all that you do to defend, improve, and expand Medicare as a cornerstone of our shared goal of health care for all New Yorkers and all across the US.

New York Health Care Advocates Relaunch Efforts for Universal Health Care Legislation (July 10, 2023)

After a nearly one-year hiatus, the Campaign for New York Health is back! In the last three months, it has hired a new Executive Director, convened a strategic planning retreat for its leadership team (board and Steering Committee), held a fundraiser, and organized a press conference to announce reintroduction of the New York Health Act, its signature legislative goal.

The Campaign was founded nearly a decade ago to formally organize the variety of groups and individuals that have long supported this bill since its original introduction over three decades ago. It was initially based out of the New York State Nurses Association, and then spun off on its own several years ago. We are proud to serve on its leadership team since its launch.

The New York Health Act has undergone several iterations since it was first introduced in 1991 by then longtime Assembly Health Committee chair Richard Gottfried (Manhattan.) It would create a fully-public universal health insurance program for all New York residents with a comprehensive range of benefits, modeled on “Medicare-for-All” proposals in Congress. There would be no limited provider networks, or out-of-pocket costs such as premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or co-insurance that constantly hassle or outright prevent patients from getting coverage of the care they need.

The bill passed the State Assembly in 1992, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 by a significant majority. It has yet to get to the floor of the State Senate for debate and vote. Its current lead sponsors are the current health committee chairs in each chamber of the state legislature: Sen. Gustavo Rivera (Bronx) and Assemblymember Amy Paulin (Westchester.) The bill has a majority of co-sponsors in each chamber: 34 (out of 63) in the Senate, and 83 (out of 150) in the Assembly.

Former Long Island congressional candidate Melanie D’Arrigo took the helm of the Campaign back in the Spring as its new Executive Director. She is a graduate of Barnard College, and earned a master’s degree in health services and allied health professions from Long Island University. Prior to joining the Campaign, she co-founded Be the Rainbow, a non-profit organization that celebrates and promotes positive self-awareness of the LGBTQ+ community on Long Island.

Earlier this month, the Campaign held a press conference outside Harlem Hospital to announce the reintroduction of the NY Health Act for the 2023-4 legislative session. Lead sponsors Sen. Rivera and AM Paulin were joined there by several legislative colleagues, leaders of health professional organizations and unions, and community health activists. The bill remains one of the most popular among a broad range of health advocates and health care unions.