Activists Beg Kensington's State Senator To Support NY Health Act

KENSINGTON, BROOKLYN — Kensington activists are begging their Democratic state senator, who typically caucuses with Republicans, to support the his party's universal health care act in Albany, which he has refused to do.

Community organizers wrote to State Senator Simcha Felder on Thursday to demand he declare his stance on the New York Health Act — which would provide single-payer healthcare to all New Yorkers — and join 31 Democrats in the senate who support the act.

Felder, who represents District 17, has refused to take a public position for about three years and the New York Health Act remains stuck in the state senate’s Health committee, of which Felder is a member.

Felder has said repeatedly that he doesn’t have enough information to make a decision.

"This legislation would be a huge overhaul of the healthcare system in New York,” Felder told The Guardian in April. “I would like to hear from experts and other senators on the Committee.”

In the past, Felder has sided with Republicans to vote against several of his Democrats initiatives, including the plastic bag tax and the New York DREAM Act.

But now New York Senate District 17 for Progress, the grassroots group leading 26 community organizations in this campaign, is asking Felder to join Democrats, declare support for NYHA, and attend a Brooklyn town hall meeting slated for March 4.

“Mr. Felder is a powerful member of the State Senate who sits on the Health Committee,” said David Goldberg of NYSD 17 for Progress in a statement. “Publicly discussing the NYHA should be at the top of his agenda.”

But it has proved difficult in the past to get Felder to discuss the act, let alone support it. Village Voice reporters spent two weeks calling his office and even drove up to Albany to ask him about his position, but without any success.

Felder’s spokeswoman, reached by telephone, promised to provide Patch with a comment but has yet to return this reporter's call.

Read the full letter here:

State Sen. Simcha Felder

February 15, 2018

1412 Avenue J, #2E

Brooklyn, NY 11230

Dear Senator Felder,

In the last year, a number of constituents from your district, as well as various media outlets, have tried to engage you in a public discussion about ways to expand quality, affordable health care coverage to all New York residents, with a particular emphasis on the New York Health Act (S4840).

To date, your response has been that you have no position on this proposed legislation, that you typically do not take a position on a bill while it’s in committee, and that the ramifications of the bill are very complex and you would like to have more information on this legislation and hear publicly from experts and stakeholders on how a program like this would be implemented.

But at a time of national insecurity concerning the fate of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid, and only a temporary solution in place for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), we believe it is critical for New York's elected officials to clearly share their thinking about the NYHA, one that has the support of 31 State Senators and has passed the Assembly during each of the past three years.

We, your constituents, believe that as our representative in the New York State Senate, it is part of your job to understand and evaluate legislation that is before this body - particularly when it is before a committee on which you sit (the Health Committee) - so that you can, in fact, take positions that best serve the public interests of your constituents. As such, we again respectfully request your response to the following questions:

(1) Please explain your current position on the NYHA - specifically, how you have investigated the legislation and the public health problems it seeks to address, and what questions you need answered before deciding whether or not to support it.

(2) As a member of the Health Committee, have you advocated for this bill to be given a hearing this year, and if so, what response have you received?

(3) Would you be willing to attend a public meeting with healthcare experts and community members to discuss this legislation?

Our understanding of the NYHA

We are eager to discuss the NYHA because we believe it will:

• Provide quality care for every New Yorker, regardless of age, income, wealth, employment status, citizenship, or immigration status.
• Eliminate financial obstacles to healthcare: no out-of-pocket costs, premiums, co-pays, deductibles, coinsurance, or out-of-network charges.
• Cover all medically necessary care, including dental, vision, mental health, and reproductive care at the same level for everyone.
• Let patients choose their own doctors and other health care providers. In District 17 this is particularly meaningful given our cultural and religious diversity.
• Be paid for by graduated income taxes, reducing healthcare costs for more than 98% of New Yorkers.
• Allow health care providers to devote more time to patients instead of negotiating with insurance companies and filling out forms.
• Save our businesses the mounting expense of administering private health insurance options, making health care costs a transparent and predictable calculation that will encourage entrepreneurship.
• Save an estimated $45 billion through decreased administration costs of health insurance and elimination of insurance company profits.

These assertions are drawn in the main from a 2015 analysis of the legislation conducted by Dr.Gerald Friedman, the Chair of the Economics Department at UMass Amherst.

Your previous comments on the NYHA

Last year, a member of NYSD 17 was able to schedule a meeting with one of of your staffers about the NYHA, which we appreciated. However, we remain unclear about your specific thinking on the bill.

The following summarizes what you've said recently about this legislation:

1) In April, 2017, The Guardian quoted you as saying that you "do not have a position on the New York Health Act", adding that, "This legislation would be a huge overhaul of the healthcare system in New York, and I would like to hear from experts and other senators on the Committee.”

2) In May, 2017, you declined to comment on the bill for a Village Voice article, and your office didn't respond to an SD 17 constituent who asked at the time for your position on the NYHA.

3) In June, 2017, one of your staffers told an SD 17 constituent that you didn't have a position on the NYHA. However, the staffer also told the constituent that as a state employee, her taxes would go up dramatically under the NYHA and that she would lose her work insurance, as well as suggesting that she read an article from the libertarian magazine Reason which is very critical of state-sponsored single-payer insurance.

4) Also in June, 2017, an SD 17 constituent received an email from you again stating that you did not have a position on the NYHA, adding that you needed more information about it. As you wrote in that email:

"As you may know, the New York Health Act (Senate Bill 4840) is currently under review in the Senate Health Committee. This legislation would completely change how health care operates in New York State. No other state in the entire country has ever successfully implemented a proposal like this and I believe that legislation of this magnitude needs to be properly vetted by the Senate Health Committee. I would like to hear publicly from experts and stakeholders on how a program like this would be implemented and the potential impacts it will have on the health care options of New York State residents."

Other constituents who contacted your office concerning the NYHA were unable to receive additional information, as documented here.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Although we acknowledge the complexity of this legislation, we believe it would be particularly beneficial to residents in a district that is one of the poorest in the state, and one in which Medicaid enrollment has increased under the Affordable Care Act. By engaging you, our elected official, about this proposed legislation, we hope to benefit from your analysis and experience, and together work toward a deeper public understanding and strengthening of this potentially historic bill.

We hope to hear back from you within the week on this critical matter.

Signed (Organizations):

1. NYSD 17 for Progress
2. Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
3. Torah Trumps Hate
4. Campaign for New York Health
5. RUSA LGBT
6. LTH Indivisible (Sunset Park)
7. HEAL NY: Healthcare Equity Action League of New York
8. Occupy Kensington
9. Ditmas Civic
10. Hitoreri: An Orthodox Movement for Social Change
11. New Kings Democrats
12. South Brooklyn DSA
13. Nurses Mobilize
14. True Blue NY
15. Fight Back Bay Ridge
16. The Brooklyn ReSisters
17. Empire State Indivisible
18. Hate Has No Home Here (a subgroup of Ditmas Civic)
19. Lady Parts Justice League
20. National Women's Liberation, New York chapter
21. NYC DSA Socialist Feminists
22. Downtown Women for Change
23. Rockland United
24. Roosevelt Island Indivisible Health Care Group
25. South Brooklyn Progressive Resistance
26. Take Back 20

Photo courtesy of Hans Pennink/Associated Press