Learn About NY Single-Payer Health Care Proposal Sunday

NANUET, NY – Learn about the single-payer health care bill that's under consideration in Albany this Sunday at the Nanuet Library.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chair of the State Assembly Health Committee, will appear at an information session to answer questions about his bill, the New York Health Act. He will also speak about its chances for passage.

“We are so pleased to have Assemblyman Gottfried coming to Rockland to tell us about legislators’ efforts to move forward this important bill that will finally provide universal health care for all New Yorkers, and save our state billions," said Gina Ironside, President of Rockland Citizens Action Network, lead sponsor of the forum.

Last year an independent study by the Rand Corporation affirmed that the New York Health Act would indeed cut costs, and add quality, according to Rockland CAN. Health care spending by New Yorkers would remain the same through 2022 and by 2031, costs would be 3 percent lower - about $15 billion less.

Tax increases to pay for the new system would be more than offset by elimination of personal health care costs, and by a reduction in local taxes since municipalities would no longer be responsible for paying insurance costs of employees- teachers, police, etc. Residents would no longer have co-pays, deductibles, or premiums, and care would be free at point of service. The plan would cover comprehensive outpatient and inpatient care, primary and preventative care, prescription drugs and laboratory tests, rehabilitative care, and dental, vision and hearing on top of all benefits currently required by state insurance law, Rockland CAN said.

The bill has passed in the Assembly the last four years, but has never made it out of committee in the Senate, which had been controlled by Republicans. With a solid majority of Democrats now in control, many of them new progressives who ran on a platform of promoting single payer, universal health care, it now is possible that the bill could make it out of committee and be approved by both houses of the legislature.

Gottfried is expected to answer questions about what the bill means for Rockland residents and families, and to talk about efforts to overcome remaining obstacles to the bill’s passage and enactment which he and other legislators are working out.

“RAND shows we can make sure every New Yorker gets the care they need and does not suffer financially to get it; save billions of dollars a year by cutting administrative costs, insurance company profit, and outrageous drug prices; and pay for it all more fairly," Gottfried says about the study.

Besides Rockland CAN, the forum is sponsored by the American Association of University Women-Rockland; League of Women Voters; Phi Beta Sigma Fratertnity; Orangetown Democratic Committee; Piermont Democratic Committee; Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow; Rockland County Democratic legislators, and the Spring Valley NAACP Health Committee.