Health Care Advocates Urge Senate Action on Health-Care-For-All Commission

Delay Costs State Billions of Dollars, While leading to Job Loss and Increased Deaths

Health care advocates are urging that the State Senate take action on the proposal to create a Legislative Commission on Health Care Coverage (A6575) when it meets in Albany on Tuesday. The Commission would launch a series of studies on how the state can most cost-effectively provide health care coverage to all New Yorkers.

Legislative agreement on the Commission, which would parallel efforts in other states, appeared close in March but since then Senate leaders, starting with Senator Kemp Hannon, chair of the Senate Health Committee, have stalled on following through. Since it would be a Legislative Commission, it can be created by a legislative resolution without the need for approval by the Governor.

Assemblymember Gottfried, chair of the Assembly Health Care Committee, offered to rewrite the proposal to meet Senator Hannon’s concerns but has been unable to get a response from Hannon on a new draft. Senator Hannon recently contended that the Commission looking at closing hospitals could conduct the studies on universal health car; actually, no such authority has been provided to that Commission.

“Some Senators appear to be concerned that this Commission is just designed to promote a single payer health care program, like Medicare for All. That is not true. Every proposal from employer mandates and HMOs to Medical Savings Accounts and tax credits can be put on the table and studied. And it will still be up to State Legislators to decide which approach makes the most sense for New York after the studies are completed. But this huge problem isn’t going to solve itself, nor will merely putting caps on county contributions to Medicaid rein in Medicaid costs,” said Lou Levitt of Rekindling Reform.

“Health care is by far the single biggest budget item for New York State, as well as for local counties and NYC. It is also usually the second biggest budget item after salaries for school districts, nonprofits, local governments and businesses. Excessive health care costs were a major factor in the recent decision by General Motors to lay off 30,000 workers. Senate inaction on real health care reform is costing New York billions of dollars along with job and lives,” stated Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network of New York State.

"Health care is the single biggest issue I deal with, and the single biggest topic for our administrators,” stated Tim Joseph, Chairperson of the Tompkins County Legislature. “Whether we're talking about budget, Social Services, collective bargaining, economic development, jails, senior services, conflicts with State government, or intermunicipal cooperation, health care is always on the table. Often it's the dominant issue, and most often it comes down to who will pay. A single universal health care system would dramatically reduce the work load throughout county government, and eliminate half of the conflicts we deal with.”


"The current health care system in New York State provides increasingly expensive health care to an ever smaller number of New York residents,” added Dr. Paul Sorum, Chair of the Capital District chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. “It wastes tremendous amounts of physicians' and patients' time and money in dealing with the morass of paperwork and regulations imposed by the current multiplicity of insurers and insurance plans. Whether you ask patients, doctors, other health care providers, large and small employers, employees, taxpayers, or elected officials, they agree that our health care system is very sick and even on the verge of collapse. As soon as possible, therefore, the Legislature needs to set up a Commission to study how best to achieve universal access for all New Yorkers to comprehensive, high quality, cost-effective health care,"

The excessive health care costs in the US puts American businesses such as GM at a serious economic disadvantage. Health care costs add on an estimated $1,500 to the price of every car manufactured by GM.

The New York Universal Health Care Options Campaign, representing more than 250 labor, faith, and community organizations, point out that while there are some positive aspects to the US health care system, such as the skills of doctors and nurses, it is far from the best in the world, ranked only 37 by the World Health Organization. The US also spends far more money on health care than any other country in the world – 15.5% of the Gross Domestic Product - even though almost all of the industrial countries have a higher quality health care system that provides universal health care coverage. In fact, just the public funds that the US spends on Medicaid and Medicare is greater than any other country’s total health care bill.

“For all our health care spending, the United States ranks near the bottom among industrialized countries on life expectancy, infant mortality and virtually every other measure. In fact, the infant mortality rate in our nation's capital is more than double the infant mortality rate in Beijing. Our health care is based on employment, but each year, fewer employers are providing company sponsored insurance. The figure is now down to 60 percent, a decline from 69 percent in 2000. Relying on individual employers to provide health care is inefficient and a drag on our ability to compete in the global economy. With universal health insurance, no employer gains an advantage by offering lower benefits or passing higher costs onto workers, stated Ron Gettelfinger, United Auto Workers’ National President, in recently calling for a national single payer universal health care system.

The Commission would be able to examine the health care and financial problems caused by the large number of uninsured New Yorkers. At any point in time, three million New Yorkers lack health insurance; over a year period, that number expands to 5.6 million or almost one in three New Yorkers.

Every year, 18,000 Americans die prematurely because they don’t have health insurance. Since they receive inadequate health care and their major illnesses are diagnosed too late, the uninsured become sicker and die sooner. When the uninsured do receive care, it is often at hospital emergency rooms and urgent care clinics, costly and inefficient places to provide primary care. Nationwide, facilities that treat the uninsured provide nearly $100 billion in healthcare services each year. To pay for unreimbursed costs, these facilities have to increase costs to public and private insurance programs, driving up rates for everyone.

“While there is overwhelming public support for universal health care, there are sharp disagreements over how best to accomplish that. The Commission would provide an opportunity for consumers, health care providers, taxpayers, unions and businesses to make proposals as to how they think we can best solve the problems posed by our present health care system. Independent cost-benefit studies would then be commissioned so that lawmakers have reliable data about all the options,” stated Carol Smith Pincus, M.D.