Mark your calendars, and save this date!

Wednesday, February 22, 5:30 to 7 p.m. — Online 

Our 2022 Health Care Justice Leader Annual Gala is happening!

(Yes, we’re a bit behind and already into 2023, but we’re celebrating good work in 2022 nevertheless!)

Keynote Address:

Kamini Doobay, MD; Founder, New York City Coalition to Dismantle Racism in the Health System

Honoree for Lifetime Achievement:

Richard Gottfried, New York State Assembly (ret.)

Joint Honorees for Leadership to Lower Rx Drug Prices and Costs:

• AARP-New York
• New York State Alliance for Retired Americans
• New York Statewide Senior Action Council

Joint Honorees for Hospital Unions Fighting for Better Patient Care:

• Committee of Interns and Residents, SEIU
• ·New York State Nurses Association, NNU
• ·1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East

Joint Honorees for Collaborations to Improve Hospital-Based Care:

• Coalition for Affordable Hospitals
• Community Coalition for the Safety Net
• Community Voices for Health System Accountability
• End Medical Debt
• Montefiore Bronx Accountability Coalition

MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO SUPPORT OUR ANNUAL GALA HERE:

• Organizations and unions​
• Individuals​

HERE’S OUR REQUESTED/SUGGESTED DONATION LEVELS:

• Individuals:  $100 (or whatever you can contribute)
• Very large unions: $1,500 or more (10+ comp tickets)
• Large groups and unions: $1,000 or more (6+ comp tickets)
• Medium-size groups and unions: $600 or more ((4 comp tickets)
• Small groups and unions: $300 or more (2 comp tickets)

All organization and union supporters will be listed on the Host Committee.

Zoom connection information will be sent once donations are made, on the day before and day of the Gala.  Deadline is 3 p.m. Wed. Feb. 22nd.

Here’s how we’ll put your donations to work in this year – We are fighting to…

• Stop Congress from slashing Medicare and Medicaid.
• Improve Traditional Medicare by adding dental, vision, and hearing benefits, and capping co-pays and deductibles.
• Stop the #MedicareAdvantage rip-off of patients and taxpayers by #BigInsurance.
• Stop #BigPharma’s abuse of the patent system that keep Rx drug prices sky-high.
• Move universal health care bills forward in Congress and the State Legislature.
• Expand  public coverage to all low-income New Yorkers regardless of immigration status.
• Remove senseless barriers that prevent some low-income people on Medicare from getting a Medicaid wrap-around.
• Improve New York’s Hospital Financial Assistance program to prevent patients from incurring medical debt they simply cannot pay off.
• Make hospitals more responsive and accountable to the local communities they serve.
• Improve insurance company provider networks to make them broader and deeper.

Thanks for stepping forward to make sure that we have the resources to “do what we gotta’ do” in 2023!

We look forward to you joining us online to hear some words of inspiration, and celebrate some “good work” and “good trouble” undertaken in 2022 by health care justice leaders.

Following up on our two previous blog posts of this week, we want to now close out this series with our thoughts about two other major areas of our work ahead for 2023:

Improving access to hospital care, hospital-community relations, and supporting safety net hospitals:

A cluster of issues centering around hospitals is increasingly coming to the fore for advocates and lawmakers, and will likely be prominent in this year’s New York legislative session. Ideas that we and our fellow advocates will be pushing include:

• Providing relief to patients with hospital medical debt they simply cannot pay.
• Updating and streamlining hospital financial assistance programs for low and moderate-income patients.
• Taking action to curb and lower skyrocketing hospital prices that saddle patients with bills they cannot pay, and that threaten the financial viability of union and employer health benefit programs.
• Revamping the distribution of State indigent care funds to prioritize safety net hospitals.
• Increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates for safety net hospitals.
• Strengthening government oversight of large hospital systems as they continue to build-out and consolidate, with an emphasis on addressing the needs and concerns of affected local communities, particularly with regard to health equity.
• Increasing community representation on government oversight bodies.
• Creating mechanisms to foster accountability of hospitals to their local communities.
• Accurately and robustly assessing if and how non-profit hospitals are meeting their charitable and community-serving missions as required under law.
• Requiring hospitals to disclose what services they don’t offer based on non-medical reasons.

In addition, at the federal level consumer advocates will be urging Congress and the Biden administration to:

• Begin asserting anti-trust concerns with regard to hospital consolidation, and its impact on price increases and access to comprehensive care in local communities.
• Hold non-profit hospitals and hospital networks (who benefit from billions of dollars in tax breaks as legal “charities”) accountable for the community needs assessments and benefit programs they are required to provide under law.
• Look into the adverse effects of private equity investors on for-profit hospitals, nursing homes, and medical practices, and broader regional health care markets.

Lowering Rx drug prices and costs:

Advocates and our congressional champions successfully took on and prevailed over Big Pharma during the Build Back Better debate of the past two years which resulted in the new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) law. For the first time ever, the federal government will start negotiating lower prices with drug corporations for people on Medicare. Already starting this week, people on Medicare now get free vaccines and pay only $35 per month for insulin, and drug corporations pay large tax penalties if they raise their prices higher than the rate of general inflation.

However, the IRA was but a first step of what needs to be done to lower drug prices for everyone else. Most of the IRA’s provisions were limited to helping people on Medicare, and that law now needs to be expanded into the realm of private insurance so that everyone can benefit.

We will also be pushing Congress to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), companies that serve as brokers between drug corporations and insurance companies. They purportedly looking out for the interests of patients with regard to lowering prices and out-of-pocket costs, and maximizing access to as many drugs as possible on their formulary lists. However, the reality is that PBMs are complete black boxes, and many believe they just leverage their broker role to generate outsize profits for investors, and patients’ concerns are secondary at best. Three of them control 80% of the market, and they all have sweetheart relationships with insurers.

Finally, Congress must also overhaul our entire Rx drug patent system that has been totally dominated by the industry for years. Drug corporations have learned to successfully manipulate it to keep maximizing their price-gouging and profiteering by extending their patents far beyond what is reasonable. As a result, many patients cannot afford the drugs they need, and low-cost generics are prevented from coming onto the market for many years.

We can do it!

Our list for 2023 is long and ambitious. By bringing community and labor together across New York, we can make progress step-by-step, year-by-year, as we’ve done since our founding 30 years ago. YOU make that happen with your participation and support, and we value you on our team!

Best wishes for all of us for 2023!

We have been busily working with our partners in various coalition groupings since the midterm elections to finalize our shared policy and legislative goals for the year ahead. Two days ago, a new congressional session began down in Washington DC (at least on the Senate side), and yesterday a new state legislative session got underway up in Albany. We’re off to the races!

No bills of any sort have yet been introduced in Congress or the State Legislature, so we can’t yet speak about any specific ones. Nevertheless, here’s how we’re starting things out as of this moment in early January as we focus on health insurance issues. (Other issues to be discussed in our next email, focusing on hospitals and Rx drugs.)

Universal health care:

At the national level, we will continue to support Medicare-for-All proposals in Congress, and other ideas that build on Medicare and other existing public programs. We will take a similar approach here in New York, to support comprehensive proposals as well as step-by-step ones. For us, it’s not an either-or approach but a both-and one. It’s all good!

Expanding and improving health insurance coverage:

National:  Over the past two years, ideas to improve and expand Medicare have gained traction, including adding dental, hearing, and vision coverage, capping total out-of-pocket costs for hospital and medical coverage (like what was just done for drug coverage within the new Inflation Reduction Act law.), and leveling the playing field between Traditional Medicare and private Medicare plans (aka “Medicare Advantage”) by ending overpayments to private insurers.

New York: Historically we have been a “leader state” when it comes to health care programs (compared to many other states), and we should be proud of that. Currently, over 40% of our state’s population is enrolled in a public insurance program. Nevertheless, approximately 1 million people still remain uninsured, and there are some things we can do in the immediate term to help them, such as:

• Expanding public health insurance programs to all low-income immigrants regardless of legal status issues (aka “Coverage for All”)
• Creating a robust community-based outreach programs to seek out and enroll people who lack coverage.
• Providing continuous Medicaid coverage for all young children in low-income families, from birth to age 3 (aka “First Thousand Days”)

In addition to getting coverage in place for people, a parallel concern is the quality of the coverage they get.  The federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) sets comprehensive benefit standards for health coverage.  However, the ACA leaves the matter of standards for provider networks and drug formularies up to states to set and enforce.  Here in New York, our network adequacy standards have not been updated in a few decades. In addition, insurers are allowed to change their provider and Rx drug lists at will at any time even though people enrolled in a health plan are stuck in it for a whole year. These problems can be addressed by the State for the types of health insurance that it has jurisdiction over, either in legislation or regulation.

Expanding consumer and patients’ rights and protections for New Yorkers:

• Updating hospital financial assistance programs to better serve low and moderate-income patients.
• Preventing or limiting unpaid medical debt issues from adversely affecting people’s credit reports.
• Providing cost-of-living increases to state-funded, community-based consumer assistance programs that help people a) learn about and enroll in health coverage, and b) address problems that arise when using their coverage or seeking care health care providers.

In addition to our own ideas above, there will others that we will need to respond to pro or con, proposals that other stakeholders and lawmakers will put on the table.

Working with our allies and partners, and with your participation and support, we are confident that we can succeed on several or more of the above ideas and goals for this year. We look forward to continuing our successful partnership for this new year!

2022 was another busy year for us as in our quest for health care justice and universal health care. We thank everyone who helped make our achievements possible with your participation and support, even if it was only financial.  All in all, we couldn’t do it all without you! We want to provide a recap of what we worked on and helped to accomplish during 2022 in partnership with our advocate colleagues.

Here’s some highlights:

Improving access to public health insurance coverage (as part of the FY 2022-23 NY State Budget enacted in the early Spring):

Improving access to public health insurance coverage (as part of the FY 2022-23 NY State Budget enacted in the early Spring):

• The Medicaid income eligibility level for low-income seniors and people with disabilities is raised to be comparable to that for all other low-income people and households who qualify for Medicaid.
• Pending approval by the federal government, Essential Plan income eligibility level is raised to 250% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) (a number that varies based on household size and composition.)
• Medicaid eligibility is opened up to all immigrants over age 65 regardless of immigration status.
• Medicaid coverage for low-income women who’ve given birth is expanded to a full year post-partum, regardless of immigration status.
• Allowable Medicaid financial asset levels for low-income people on Medicare are raised to $28,000+ (individuals) and nearly $39,000 (couples).
• Income eligibility levels for Medicare Saving Programs (MSPs) are raised for low-income people up to 186% FPL.  (MSPs help low-income people on Medicare who do not also qualify for Medicaid to pay for their Medicare premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.)
• Financial asset tests for MSPs are eliminated.
• Nominal $9 per child per month premiums for Child Health Plus are eliminated for lower-income families.

Curbing medical debt in New York (stand-alone bills enacted in the late Spring):

• Prohibiting health care providers from seeking wage garnishments and liens on primary residences when suing patients with outstanding medical bills.
• Requiring health care providers to inform patients in advance of any facility fee they may be charged.
• Prohibiting health care providers from charging “facility fees” for preventive health services.

Improving Rx drug and health insurance affordability (as part of the new federal “Inflation Reduction Act”, enacted during the Summer):

• Free vaccines for people for on Medicare (started on Jan. 1, 2023.)
• $35/mo. co-pay cap for insulin prescriptions (started on Jan. 1, 2023.)
• Capping annual Rx drug price increases to the general rate of inflation (started on Jan. 1, 2023.)  (Historically, these prices have gone up much faster each year, which compound over time.)
• Eliminating the income cap to be eligible for premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans available on government online marketplaces (available for 2023.)
• Increasing the amount of premium subsidies for people who purchase health insurance plans available on government online marketplaces (available for 2023.)
• Eliminates the 5% co-pay rate for Rx drugs covered during the Medicare Part D catastrophic phase (starts in 2024.)
• Raises the income eligibility level for Medicare Part D “Extra Help” benefits up to 150% FPL (starts in 2024.)
• Limits annual premium increases for Medicare Part D to 6% (starts in 2024.)
• Caps total out-of-pocket costs for Rx drugs covered by Medicare Part D to $2,000 per year (starts in 2025.)
• New negotiated Rx drug prices go into effect for people on Medicare (starts in 2026.)

The midterm elections (during the Fall):

While we do not endorse candidates nor tell people who to vote for, during election seasons we do help people and media outlets understand:

• candidates’ positions and records on health care issues.
• the ins-and-outs of the salient health care issues that are being debated.
• “what’s at stake” in an election for health issues going forward.

…so that people can make informed decisions when they go to the polls.

Whew! How did we do all this?

At the state level, with our partners in Health Care for All New York and Medicaid Matters New York, both statewide coalitions that advocate for the needs and concerns of patients and consumers.

At the federal level, with our partners in the Health Care for America, Now New York State Network, a statewide coalition we coordinate that is part of a national multi-constituency coalition.

It is a truism in social justice work that passing a policy goal into law is only the first step.  Then comes making sure the new law gets properly implemented.  In addition, there’s informing directly-affected people, the general public, community leaders, and media professionals about the new law.  Finally, since any particular law rarely solves a problem fully, there’s always planning for “what’s next?”, to continue to striving toward the goal and carry the work forward step-by-step. Throughout, it’s always important to celebrate our victories, recognize and appreciate those who contribute to our successes, evaluate lessons learned, and recalibrate as we keep pushing ahead.

Again, many thanks to everyone who helped make all this happen with us– we couldn’t have done it without YOU!

Best wishes to all for the year ahead,

We want to hear from YOU!

• Have you been a patient over the past decade at Beth Israel Hospital?
• Are you thinking about or planning to seek services at Beth Israel Hospital in the future?
• Are you a family member of or a caregiver for a former or future patient at Beth Israel Hospital?

If so, join a special online forum on Wednesday evening, November 30th starting at 7 p.m. to tell us about…

• Your experiences in seeking services at Beth Israel Hospital.
• What you’d like to see Beth Israel Hospital do or become in the future.
• How Beth Israel Hospital can best can continue to serve patients and their families, and the community it serves.

RSVP here to receive further information about how to participate. Space will be limited so please don’t delay.

Why this event?

A few years ago, Mount Sinai Health System, the parent network of Beth Israel Hospital, sought to radically downsize it and scale back its services. However, in the wake of the pandemic, Mount Sinai changed its mind. Meanwhile, some key units at the hospital were closed and are not yet restored.

We want to hear from people who have used or plan to use Beth Israel Hospital about their experiences and ideas about how to make things better.  We will also help people understand what they can do to preserve and improve access to hospital care in Lower Manhattan, and briefly discuss Mount Sinai’s desire to close New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and disperse its services across Lower Manhattan.

What’s this is really all about:

As hospital empires grow ever larger, individual facilities in a hospital network often lose touch with the needs and concerns of their patients and local community service area, as everything gets centralized in and moved to a mothership base that is often located a long distance away.

In response, MergerWatch and our various partners in Health Care for All New York (HCFANY) launched the Community Voices for Health System Accountability (CVHSA) project a few years ago. This project has two foci:

• Strengthening New York’s oversight of hospital systems to foster improved community-hospital relations and advance health equity in medically-underserved areas.
• Supporting local organizing efforts to preserve health care services in their communities as these big empires take over individual hospitals.

Event sponsors:

• Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel Hospital
• Community Catalyst, Hospital Accountability Project
• Community Voices for Health System Accountability
• Metro New York Health Care for All

Questions? metrohealth@igc.org or 917-318-5008

The top cause of personal bankruptcy is medical debt, and nearly one-third of all people in the U.S. have medical debt they simply cannot pay.  It’s been this way for a long time, and is getting worse month-by-month, year-by-year. Historically, medical inflation is 2 to 3 times the general rate, so the problem compounds over time, while Big Medicine, Big Pharma, and Big Insurance rake in the cash.

The number one driving cause is sky-high hospital prices, followed by prescription drugs.  Both are increasing the fastest within the health care sector. Worsening the problem is the dumbing down of quality health coverage with high deductibles and co-pays. Once a serious illness or injury happens, down the rabbit hole you go.

Medical debt is really emerging as a major national issue that lawmakers cannot ignore. The problem is getting increased media attention, and patients, employers, unions, and advocates are mobilizing to push for action.

The good news is that there are things state governments can do to help mitigate and eliminate this chronic problem. Four years ago, our statewide coalition Health Care for All New York launched the “End Medical Debt” campaign, and it’s been growing bigger and stronger. This campaign has built legislative accomplishments along the way, but there’s still more work to do. We’re proud to be part of its leadership team with other partners across our state.

Looking ahead to 2023, this campaign’s goals are to strengthen New York’s Hospital Financial Assistance Law so that more patients get more help more easily, to stop hospitals from suing lower-income patients, and to reform the State’s distribution of indigent care funding so that safety net hospitals get their fair share of resources from it. Our partners within organized labor are also launching a new effort to limit and moderate hospital prices, particularly those charged by large hospital empires, and we look forward to supporting them in the Coalition for Affordable Hospitals campaign.

Here’s what’s happening this fall that YOU and others can jump into:

• Wed. Nov. 16, 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon  – End Medical Debt NYC Community Forum, at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Come tell YOUR story of medical debt to advocate leaders and public officials, learn more about the issue, and find out what else you can do to get our state legislators to take action. Sign up here.
• Every Monday online – “Medical Debt Mondays” social media days of action engage state lawmakers on the issue, and share stories of patients’ experiences to generate public awareness and buzz. People from all across our state are joining in from the comfort and ease of their homes, workplaces, and communities. Here’s a handy social media toolkit.
• Share your own story with the End Medical Debt campaign, to be used with lawmakers and media outlets. Communication professionals will work with you to fine tune it for maximum impact, and anonymity can be provided if desired. More info here.
• Join the “We the Patients” project that brings together individuals to support each other and take action collectively. More info here.

The End Medical Debt campaign will continue to power-up as next year’s state legislative session approaches. Thanks for joining in to help move it forward!

The future of health care and democracy are both absolutely on the ballot this fall! Voter turnout will determine which direction we take on both, so it’s all-hands-on-deck time to “get out the vote”. If lots of people show up at the polls, the champions for health care and for democracy will prevail. It’s really that simple.

The key health care questions for voters are:

Will the next Congress continue to build on existing programs like Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and the Affordable Care Act to move us forward toward health care for all?  Or will Congress strive to slash-and-burn bedrock health care and related social programs as best they can in order to pay for the never-paid-for Bush and Trump tax cuts for large corporations and the ultra-rich ($5.5 trillion in total.) …and possibly new similar ones?

Will Congress keep facing down Big Pharma to lower drug prices for everyone, or will they continue to let the industry keep ripping off patients and bankrupting families?

Will they protect women’s rights to comprehensive reproductive health care, or ban it in all states, regardless of our laws here in New York?

And of course, what about universal health care and Medicare-for-All?

Here in New York, will our next Governor and State Legislature continue to build on our very successful public programs (Medicaid, Child Health Plus, Essential Plan) and Affordable Care Act marketplace (aka New York State of Health) to provide comprehensive, quality, affordable health care for all New Yorkers? Or will they go after these public programs for being “too generous to too many”, and let Big Insurance reassert its hegemony?

Will they take on Big Medicine over its skyrocketing prices (particularly large hospital empires), or will they continue to let the industry keep driving patients into medical debt, and draining union and employer health benefit programs?  

Will they preserve or repeal New York’s strong laws that guarantee a woman’s right to comprehensive reproductive health care?

And of course, what about universal health care via the New York Health Act or some other comprehensive plan?

Looming over all these particular health care questions is the future of democracy itself across our nation. While it has always been a work-in-progress yet to be fully realized here in the US, do we continue to expand and improve it, or do we throw it all away and turn toward authoritarian, religious nationalist, white supremacist fascism?

The fate of health care in the US and New York is intricately tied to the fate of democracy. We won’t get one without the other. Fighting for health care for all is fighting for democracy, and fighting for democracy is fighting for health care for all. As the slogan goes, “Same struggle, same fight!”

Early voting here in New York begins tomorrow (Sat. Oct. 29) and runs through Sun. Nov. 6^th. Election Day follows on Tues. Nov. 8^th. NOW is the time to roll up our sleeves and get voters to the polls. NOW is our opportunity –and obligation!– to put democracy into action, and to face down those who seek to destroy it.

What YOU can do:

• Join in get out the vote activities in your community, and in races that are strategic to the future. Let’s run up those vote totals to record numbers!
• Help voters understand “what’s at stake” in this year’s elections, and that their own vote really matters for our shared future.
• Help voters understand the candidates’ claims and counterclaims about the important issues of our time and the values that underly them. Health care is always in the top tier of them, election cycle after election cycle.

The good news is that voters are strongly with us on the issues of democracy, health care, tax fairness, and many other social justice matters. All we have to do now is get them to the polls. We can win this – it’s ours for the taking.

Only 12 days to go! We can do it!

This weekend, the US Senate is taking up the new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), moving it ahead under its special “budget reconciliation” process that will preclude any filibuster from opponents. After months of delays and painstaking negotiations, our own New York Senator Schumer, the Majority Leader, has closed the deal with his colleagues, and it’s likely to pass in the next few days. After that, it will be quickly taken up by the House of Representatives, which will consider via special proxy voting procedures since they have already recessed for their August summer break, and then go to President Biden for a signing ceremony.

We and our partners and allies in Health Care for America Now’s New York State Network have spent the last 18 months engaging with our state’s two senators and House delegation. Our goal has been to make sure that good stuff got into this bill and that bad stuff was kept out, and that sufficient savings were created and revenues raised in fair and just ways to pay for all the bill’s provisions.  

While we didn’t get everything we were all pushing for from the outset of our efforts, what has made it to the finish line for health care is all good, and lays out a foundation to build upon going forward. As is always the case in legislative advocacy, what didn’t make it this time, we take forward into coming election seasons and congressional sessions – our work continues and we fight on.

Here’s what the IRA does to improve health care:

• Requires Medicare to negotiate to lower prices for high-cost prescription drugs, including insulin.
• Creates rebate penalties on drug corporations when they raise their prices above the general inflation rate.
• Caps the amount of co-pays that people on Medicare Part D have to pay for medicines at $2,000/year.
• Caps the monthly co-pays for insulin to $35 per prescription.
• Makes all vaccines free for people on Medicare.
• Expands eligibility to Medicare Part D’s “Low Income Subsidy” (aka “Extra Help”) to more low-income people.
• Slows the annual growth of Medicare Part D premiums.
• Continues for three more years the expanded health insurance premium subsidies for people and families who buy their own coverage on the Affordable Care Act online marketplaces (here in New York: “New York State of Health”.)

The IRA’s tax fairness provisions include:

• Creating a minimum corporate tax of 15% on booked profits, as part of an international agreement among the G20 nations.
• Creating a new 1% excise tax on corporate stock buybacks that are used to inflate stock prices and dividends for shareholders and corporate CEOs.
• Providing more funds to the IRS to go after ultra-rich tax cheats who don’t pay their fair share or what they owe.

How New Yorkers can help get this bill over the finish line:

• Contact our two US Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to a) thank them for their leadership to get a final IRA deal negotiated with their colleagues, and b) get the job done over this weekend.
• Contact your own US Representative to urge they take up the IRA bill as soon as the Senate is done.
• Use phone, emails, and social media platforms to contact lawmakers and your own family, friends, and colleagues!

Many of the health care provisions in the IRA are historic. Because of everyday people pressure, Congress is finally poised to successfully take on and prevail over Big Pharma FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!  Needless to say, the drug industry is fiercely opposed to IRA, and is pulling out all the stops to protect their long-running price-gouging and profiteering. They are openly voicing threats to exact revenge on supportive lawmakers going forward. We all know that we here in the US pay way more for the same drugs than patients do in any other country, and that the drug industry is far and away among the most profitable in the world and has rigged the system in their favor for years.

Similarly, Wall Street is strongly opposing the IRA’s tax fairness provisions that for the first time in decades starts to close special tax breaks and loopholes that allow large corporations and the ultra-rich to avoid paying any taxes — again, because of people power. This too is historic, and again begins to turn the political tide on an industry long all-powerful in Congress.

It’s been a long haul to get to this point where some good things are about to get done, and some long-entrenched industries successfully challenged. We couldn’t have made it without your support and taking action. The IRA’s goals and provisions are VERY popular with voters despite being opposed by the vested special interests.

It’s that time of year again! …when we all gather to celebrate the anniversaries of the “Big Three” of our nation’s bedrock and very popular social programs: Medicare and Medicaid (July 30), and Social Security (August 14.) These events that we organize annually are always very popular with our partners and supporters, and we invite all to be with us!

Join us on Friday July 29 @ 11 a.m. when we’ll be holding a pandemic-safe celebration on the plaza out front of 780 Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan (@ 48^th St.), the office building where Senators Gillibrand and Schumer NYC offices are located. Members of their district office staffs will be joining us since both Senators will be down in DC finishing up work on several important bills before the recess for their August break.

Here are links to all the details:

• Action Network
• Facebook

During our event, we’ll be talking about:

• How everyday New Yorkers and our families benefit from these 3 programs.
• How we want Congress to protect these programs and address threats to them.
• How we want Congress to improve and expand these programs.

We’ll also be celebrating an exciting new, historic health care bill that is poised to be passed by Congress next week that will:

• Negotiate lower drug prices with #Big Pharma for Medicare (first time ever!)
• Limit how much drug corporations can raise their prices each year for Medicare (first time ever!)
• Cap annual out-of-pocket costs for Rx drugs for people on Medicare (first time ever!)
• Expand financial assistance to more low-income people for Rx drug co-pays.
• Lower annual increases for Medicare Part D drug coverage.
• Provide free vaccines for people on Medicare.
• Continue increased premium subsidies for people who buy Affordable Care Act health plans via the new online marketplaces. (Here in NY: “New York State of Health”)
• Here’s a full summary of this bill from Senator Schumer’s office.

We look forward to seeing everyone then! To keep everyone safe during the current COVID-19 omichron BA5 outbreak, please wear a face mask.

Here are some social media toolkits to use this Saturday morning (July 30), to help create some “trending buzz”:

• New York focus: All 3 programs, Medicaid only (from Medicaid Matters NY)
• National focus: Medicare & Medicaid, Medicaid only (both from Health Care for America Now)
• Medicare focus (from Physicians for a National Health Program)

Finally, late yesterday afternoon, Senator Schumer’s office announced agreement with Senator Machin and other Senate Majority members to add provisions to this bill related to tax reforms and climate change. All together, this combined new bill is known as the “Inflation Reduction Act.” We salute and thank Senator Schumer for his tenacious leadership in crafting this historic bill with his colleagues!

Good news! The US Senate is finally poised to move forward with its own legislative response to the Build Back Better bill passed by the House last fall. It will be much smaller in scope, and focus on key health care issues. The bill does not yet have a name or bill number.

The following provisions have been agreed upon so far:

• Empowering the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices with Big Pharma.
• Limiting how much drug corporations can raise drug prices each year to the general rate of inflation. (Typically, they raise their prices much more.)
• Capping out-of-pocket costs for Rx drugs for people on Medicare at $2,000 per year.
• Limiting how much Rx drug coverage goes up each year for people on Medicare.
• Free vaccines for people on Medicare.
• Keeping health insurance more affordable for people who buy their own coverage via Affordable Care Act (ACA) online marketplaces.

Many Senate Majority members and advocates are also pushing to add-in provisions to:

• Cap monthly co-pays for insulin to $35 per month per prescription
• Provide affordable health insurance to low-income people in states that have not yet expanded Medicaid to more low-income people and families under the ACA. (New York is not one of these states – we expanded our Medicaid program nearly a decade ago.)
• Expand Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Program in various ways to help improve the health and well-being of new mothers and their babies, children, and adolescents.
• Free vaccines for all low-income people and families on public insurance programs.

Help is needed to get the insulin provisions included. Here’s what you can do:

• Organizations can sign-on to a letter to Senators that is being circulated by Patients for Affordable Drugs, AARP, and allies.
• Individuals can endorse and online petition that is being circulated by T1 International (a group of diabetes activists) and allies.

The final decisions about what ends up in a final package will come down to how much money is available overall, and the individual cost of this and that individual provision. What doesn’t make it in will remain to be pushed for later this fall after the elections as part of a federal budget deal, or next year by a new Congress. In either scenario, we will have our work cut out for us.

Both our US Senators from New York (Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand) support all these ideas, as do many members of our state’s congressional delegation (all Democrats.)  The Senate is expected to vote on its bill during the first week of August, and the House will vote on it very soon thereafter. President Biden is then expected to quickly sign it.  

All that noted, we can take nothing for granted.  We urge you to contact both Senators Schumer and Gillibrand and your own member of Congress to urge that they move ahead to get this bill done before their August recess, since it’s now been well over a year that lawmakers have been working on it.

We want to acknowledge and thank all our partners and allies in Health Care for America Now’s New York State Network that we coordinate, for all our hard work together over many months to get us to this point. We couldn’t have done it without all of you. People power DOES matter.

While this final bill will not do everything we all want and need it to do to help everyday people in a whole lot of ways, it will nonetheless be historic in finally successfully taking on Big Pharma’s voracious profiteering and unconscionable price-gouging over many years.

Finally, all the ideas mentioned above are all VERY popular. There is no reason for any lawmaker or candidate for office to hesitate to embrace them. They are winning issues with voters across the political spectrum. We urge you to push for them during the coming election season.