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 30^th). Here’s how you join the celebration!

Anniversary Street Party!  Various groups are gathering this coming Fri. July 28^th 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. 48^th 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. 1^st, 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.

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.

It is with much sadness that we share news of the recent passing of Pat Fry, former Political Director of the Committee of Interns and Residents SEIU (CIR), and a longtime volunteer with our coalition after she retired about a decade ago. She died after a long illness while in home hospice care, surrounded by her family and close friends in Traverse City, Michigan. Plans are in development for public memorial events in the early Fall in her hometown of Detroit and in New York City where Pat lived and worked. You can read a brief obituary about Pat here.

Pat was an ardent trade union and social justice activist who worked tirelessly with us in the struggle for universal health care here in New York and across the United States. Our world is a better place because of her life and work, and we are now the lesser with her passing.

In memory of Pat and carrying forward her passion and spirit, we are proud to announce our new “Pat Fry Health Care Justice Memorial Fund”, to receive donations from friends, family, and colleagues upon her death, at Pat’s request. We are honored and humbled to be chosen in this way.

People can honor Pat’s wishes and donate to this new fund here, and we thank you for your contributions.

Contributions to the fund will be used to support our ongoing work that centers on health care issues in Congress, and in particular our role in leading the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and it’s sister campaign Lower Drug Prices Now in New York, as we have for nearly 15 years now. HCAN is the national multi-constituency campaign that pushed comprehensive health care reform through Congress in 2009-10 which resulted in what we now know as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Since then, HCAN has led efforts to implement the law, defend it against numerous repeal attempts, and improve and expand its provisions to benefit more people over time. Millions of people across the US have benefited from this landmark and historic piece of social legislation, and Pat played an important role in making that happen.

During her tenure with CIR, Pat was instrumental in guiding and rallying the physician and health care union community behind the campaign for health care reforms, both nationally and locally. During the 15-month legislative campaign for the ACA, she and her CIR colleagues Tim Foley and Anne Mitchell provided crucial in-kind support to our NYC Organizing Committee for HCAN, and the congressional fight was a grueling up-and-down struggle from start to finish. In the end, 12 of 13 members of Congress from NYC voted for the bill, and it only passed by a handful of votes overall. Pat deserves a good part of the credit for that outcome.

Once she retired, Pat volunteered with us to help out with all kinds of tasks, in particular with outreach to unions for our various campaigns that focus on state and federal health care issues.  

We mourn Pat’s passing, will miss her savvy strategic thinking, and recommit ourselves in her spirit to the fight for health care justice and universal health care. We also celebrate her extraordinary life and work. Pat Fry, presente!  Rest in power.

The Coverage for All bill (S.2237A/A.3020A, Rivera/Gonzelz-Rojas) is suddenly THIS CLOSE to passing the Legislature!

The Senate will be voting on it tonight (Thurs. eve.)  All that needs to happen next is for Assembly leaders to schedule a floor vote ASAP where we know it too will pass. Time is of the essence, since the Legislature will end their 2023 session by Saturday evening.

(Reminder: “Coverage for All” will open up New York’s very successful “Essential Plan” to all lower-income residents regardless of immigration documentation status, and it will be entirely paid for with federal funds.)

Earlier this week, legislative leaders received a letter from the federal government saying that New York can indeed ask for “Section 1332 pass-through funds” (refers to a provision of the Affordable Care Act) to pay for a Coverage for All program, and that similar permission has already been granted to some other states.

Now there is no excuse not to do it, and delay things any further!

What YOU can do …to get things over the finish line in the Assembly:

• Reach out to your own Assemblymember to ask that they ask Speaker Heastie to schedule a floor vote on the Coverage for All bill (A.3020, Gonzalez-Rojas) before the Legislature adjourns on Saturday.
• Use this digital toolkit to contact and tag Assemblymembers, and to create social media buzz more broadly.
• Ask friends, family, and colleagues to do the same!

Thanks much for helping to make Coverage for All happen! It will put New York in the forefront of states extending public health insurance coverage to all residents, including all immigrants.

We in the universal health care movement have long understood that grassroots democracy is essential to our success. We won’t achieve our “health care for all” goal without it. That’s why we have long supported election campaign finance reforms that rebalance and counter the inordinate power of special interests and large donors by supporting and growing grassroots power in both our legislative and electoral processes.

Three years ago, New York State created a landmark public campaign finance program for candidates for public office. It is going into effect now for the 2023-4 election cycle, and incumbents and challengers are already enrolling in this new program. It is modeled on New York City’s very successful program that has been in operation for two decades.  

Both the State and City systems provide significant matching funds for small donations up to $250 from local residents and constituents, so that grassroots candidates can run for office without being reliant on outside big donors and political party bosses. These programs fundamentally shift the balance of power in elections by changing the financial rules of the game. They provide public funding to candidates who can demonstrate significant grassroots support from their own voters. It makes our democracy much better.

What just happened:

A new bill has suddenly been introduced in the NYS Legislature in the literal final days of this year’s state legislative session that will significantly weaken New York’s new public campaign finance program and violate the spirit of its intent. This bill is likely to move forward to passage by the end of this week, completely skipping any normal legislative process of passing through committees, etc. This new bill will make it more difficult for new candidates to challenge incumbents, and will allow candidates to receive matching funds for the first $250 of any larger donations (up to the legal limit of $18,000 per person.)

What YOU can do:

Those of us who believe in grassroots democracy need to immediately contact our State Senators and Legislators to voice our objections to these changes — small donor matching funds should only be for small donations! We also need to object to this new bill coming forward now out of a backroom deal during the final days of the legislative session, with no time for public awareness or debate or regular legislative process.

Fair Elections for New York has created a special digital toolkit for people to use to contact a targeted list of state legislators and ask them to vote against weakening the existing law, so that this new bill doesn’t sail through without any objections. To be clear, all expectations are that this new bill will pass. But for now, we need to get a cadre of courageous legislators in each chamber to stand up for strong grassroots democracy, to set the stage for what comes next with the roll-out of this new system.

Remember, the fight for good democracy is part-and-parcel of our fight for universal health care.

Thanks for jumping into this fight over the next few days.

We’re coming down to the wire, and YOU can help out!  This year’s New York State legislative session wraps-up by the end of this week.  We’ve got a few things that can hopefully get across the finish line with a bit of a push from everyone – only 3+ days to go!

Here’s what’s still in play on important health care issues, and how you can help move things along– remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Coverage for All (S.2237/A.3020, Rivera/Gonzalez-Rojas) – This bill will open up New York’s very successful Essential Plan to all low-income New Yorkers and families regardless of immigration status issues. Federal funding is likely available for it through a Section 1332 waiver (refers to a provision of the Affordable Care Act) – all we have to do is ask about it. Here’s a good explainer on this bill.

• State of Play: Health care and immigrant rights advocates pushed hard to get this idea included in the final state budget agreement earlier this Spring. The Legislature was fully in support and fought for its inclusion, but Governor Hochul wanted rock-solid assurance first that the federal government would cover the cost before she would commit to the idea. She has since written to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services for clarification, as have both the Health Committee chairs from the State Senate and Assembly, and all are now waiting for replies. In the meantime, the Legislature can enact authorizing legislation now so that all is ready to move ahead once a favorable response is received – no need to wait until next year!
• What YOU can do: Contact YOUR own State Senator and Assemblymember to urge this program be authorized before the end of session. You can also use this digital toolkit to engage lawmakers, and to help others understand why this important step is needed.

End Medical Debt – There are two bills under this category:

• The Ounce of Prevention Act (S.13666a/A.6027a, Rivera/Paulin) will streamline and update the State’s hospital financing assistance program’s standards so that more people can easily qualify and for greater financial support. The Attorney General’s office has suddenly stepped forward with support and is putting forward for some improvements, so this bill is now being set aside until next year’s session. In the meantime, advocates have also begun discussions with hospital industry leaders to attempt to forge a shared bill that all stakeholders can support. All is hopeful but will be delayed.
• The Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act (S.4907a/A.6275a, Rivera/Paulin) will prohibit health care providers and collection agencies from reporting outstanding medical debt to credit agencies. It has passed the Senate, and is poised to go the Assembly floor for debate and vote – if so, it will likely pass. Leadership just has to schedule it. Contact YOUR own Assemblymember to ask them to have Speaker Heastie move this bill to the floor. If you like, here is a handy click-to-email tool you can use.

Regulating Hospital Closures – The Local Input for Community Healthcare Act (S.2085/A.1366, Kavanaugh/Simon) will set up a formal system for State oversight of hospital closures as industry consolidation continues into building ever-larger hospital networks. Right now, there isn’t much of a meaningful role for State officials, and what exists is very weak and haphazard. Local communities deserve better! Here is a summary of this bill from Community Voices for Health System Accountability, a statewide project we help to lead.

• State of Play: This bill passed the Assembly last week, and is poised to go to the Senate floor IF a debate and vote gets scheduled by leadership. Last year, at this same time this bill also passed the Assembly, but the clock ran out in the Senate before it could be voted on – we don’t want that to happen again this year!
• What YOU can do: Contact YOUR own State Senator to ask them to have Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins move this bill to the floor before adjournment. Organizations can also use this “Memo of Support” template and send it to Senator Kavanaugh’s lead staff for this bill (Anthony Macerola, amacerola.nysenate@gmail.com)

Thanks much for all your help to get these bills over the finish line in the next 3 days!