Push for single-payer health care, for and against
With the New York State Legislature set to end its session on June 2, pressure was building from both sides in the controversy over the New York Health Act, which would replace health care in the state with a single-payer system. Attempts to bring about passage of the act had consistently failed in past years and some observers were certain that if it didn”™t pass this time, legislation would be reintroduced when the legislature meets again next year.
The Business Council of Westchester (BCW) was one of the organizations that, in the waning days of the legislative session, was urging its members to get in touch with their legislators and urge them to once again block passage of the New York Health Act.
“This disastrous plan comes with a price tag of as much as $250,000,000,000 per year and will cost 161,000 jobs in New York,” a message from BCW Executive Vice President and COO John Ravitz said. BCW members were urged to “contact legislators today and tell them to reject this job-eliminating legislation. They should be working to create and retain jobs instead of eliminating them.”
Ravitz told the Business Journals, “The state can”™t afford it. The Business Council was what is called ”˜navigators”™ during the early years of the New York State Affordable Care Act, the Health Exchange, and we helped enroll thousands of Westchester residents who had not been receiving health care into the system, and the system is working. To dismantle that system makes no sense whatsoever after the State Legislature only passed it six or seven years ago.”
Proponents of the New York Health Act say that the Covid-19 pandemic, racial inequities and poor health outcomes underscore the critical need to establish a universal, guaranteed health care system at the state level.
“New Yorkers elected a Democratic super-majority in the middle of a pandemic as a mandate to enact bold transformational changes, including the New York Health Act,” said Ursula Rozum, co-director of the Campaign for NY Health. “This bill must be central to a just and equitable recovery from this pandemic.”
Among the organizations that had gotten behind the 2022 legislation are the New York State Nurses Association, the union 1199SEIU, the Statewide Senior Action Council, Physicians for a National Health Program, New York Immigration Coalition, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies and the New York Association on Independent Living.
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a legislative sponsor of the legislation and chairman of the Assembly Health Committee, has made promotion of a single-payer system in New York a cornerstone of his tenure in Albany.
“Health care disparities are amplified in a pandemic, but they aren”™t new” said Gottfried. “It”™s shocking that people can come out of Covid-19 treatment with massive medical debt, but people also shouldn”™t face financial obstacles or hardships for cancer treatment, having a baby or other health care. The New York Health Act, a single-payer system, will guarantee that all New Yorkers regardless of income or job status can focus on their health and health care, not medical bills.”
State Senator Gustavo Rivera, chair of the Senate Health Committee and bill sponsor, said, “I am incredibly proud that the majority of members in both the Assembly and the Senate cosponsor and support the legislation.”
A coalition known as The Realities of Single Payer serves as an umbrella for 164 organizations that have been urging legislators to oppose the Health Act. The organization supports a combination of private and government-funded health insurance.
“I was the ranking member on the New York State Assembly Health Committee in the early 90”™s, when Dick Gottfried, the sponsor, was introducing this,” Ravitz told the Business Journals. “It started back then, and the questions that we asked him in the 90”™s are the questions we still need to ask him in 2022. How can the state afford this?”
Ravitz said there have been independent studies showing that a single-payer system would prove to be very costly for the state as well as employers within the state, including a Rand study that found it would create a $210 billion tax burden.
“The political landscape in Albany has changed dramatically with much more progressive members in both the Senate and Assembly,” Ravitz said. “There will be people who will want to push this bill, and what we”™ve said at The Business Council of Westchester is rather than pass a bill that we know the state can”™t afford, let the governor and legislature work to improve the New York Health Exchange so that those folks who aren”™t yet enrolled can have the opportunity to identify and select a health plan that”™s going to work for them.”
Ravitz said that eventually when you have a tax increase of $210 billion, someone is going to have to pay for it.
“We can”™t spend and pretend. We can”™t spend money and then pretend that we have it and employers will be able to afford it when we know that”™s not the case, especially with what”™s happened in the last 2-1/2 years because of the pandemic,” Ravitz said. “We don”™t want emergency rooms to be the primary health care providers. That doesn”™t help anybody. Every individual and family should have the right to have health insurance. That”™s why the state legislature passed the Affordable Care Act and created the New York State Health Exchange. That program has enrolled 4.9 million people already in New York state. That”™s 4.9 million people who didn”™t have health care insurance before, so the program is working. Why throw that all out?”