BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
Since 1991, a bill that
would fundamentally
change New York’s health
care system to a comprehensive
single-payer
health care system has
been sitting on the legislative
fl oor without much
progress. However, during
this legislative session,
which started on
Jan.5, Bronx Democrats,
both Progressive and
moderates, are leading
a full-court press to get
the New York Health Act
passed in the state Legislature.
Fueled by staffi ng
shortages in the area’s
biggest hospital systems
and plagued by systemic
inadequacies in health
coverage and health
rates, Bronxites are fi nding
themselves increasingly
uninsured, unhealthy
and unable to
withstand major medical
events or expenses.
In the South Bronx,
the poorest urban congressional
district in
the U.S., the population
is plagued by disproportionate
and high rates of
diabetes, obesity, heart
disease, asthma, HIV/
AIDS and infant mortality.
And though health
outcomes improve in
wealthier areas of the
borough, Blacks in the
Bronx are still dying at a
higher rate than whites,
regardless of where they
live.
It’s no shock to city
leaders and community
organizers that for the
past 11 years, the Bronx
has ranked dead last out
of the state’s 62 counties,
in terms of health care
outcomes — a stat which
includes mortality rates,
safety of care and patient
experience and care.
To improve the borough’s
dire health outcomes,
Bronx politicos
are putting their support
behind the single-payer
health care proposal the
New York Health Act,
which would aim to provide
quality comprehensive
health care to every
resident of the state, and
residents of New Jersey
who work in New York.
Undocumented workers
would also be covered under
the plan.
Under the NY Health
Act, all necessary care
for every state resident
would be covered, from
primary and specialty
care, prescriptions, hospitalization,
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hearing, long-term
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abuse treatment
and reproductive care.
Advocates point to
increasing costs of prescriptions,
premiums,
deductibles and copays,
which have left a million
New Yorkers with no insurance,
and 50% of insured
New Yorkers underinsured,
while health
care profi ts climbed to
$55 billion. Since the implementation
of the Affordable
Care Act (ACA),
the uninsured rate in
New York state has decreased
from 11%-5%, according
to NYS Health.
However, prior to the COVID
19 pandemic, approximately
1 million New
Yorkers remained without
insurance.
Longwood resident
Lindys Hernandez suffered
a traumatic brain
injury in March 2019
from a single car-accident.
She told the Bronx
Times in an email correspondence
that when
her injury left her unable
to work, a lack of
insurance coverage also
left her unable to afford
much-needed post-injury
treatments. Advocates of
the single-payer health
system say stories like
Hernandez’s are common
when a health care
system is reliant on employment
— a rate in the
Bronx that is still convalescing
from a recordhigh
24.8% unemployment
rate during the
throes of the pandemic.
The proposal is a massive
undertaking, as it
would fundamentally “reshuffl
e and reorganize”
New York’s health care
system, a seismic shift
that state Sen. Gustavo
Rivera acknowledged is
no small feat. The bill has
stalled in the state Legislature
numerous times
including in 2019 when
Republicans blocked
the bill, despite it passing
overwhelmingly in
the Democrat-controlled
state Assembly fi ve times.
“The health insurance
companies and anyone
who’s benefi ted from (this
current health) system …
has created this perception
that this is the only
way to do it,” said Rivera,
a Progressive who represents
the East Tremont,
Crotona Park and Fordham
sections. “The whole
concept is that the best
you possibly can do is to
get the right job so you
can get the right insurance.
That is something
that as an underlying belief
is hard to break.”
More than 1.1 million
Bronx politicos are putting their support behind the singlepayer
health care proposal, the New York Health Act. Photo |
New Yorkers earned between
200% and 250% of
the federal poverty level
in 2019, and approximately
110,000 of them
lacked health insurance.
An estimated 60% of New
York workers are without
job-based health benefi
ts, according to a 2019
report from NYS Health,
and offi cials believe that
residents who do not see
premiums as a justifi able
expense are more willing
to forgo health care or
pay out-of-pocket.
Additionally, proponents
of the bill claim
that by eliminating forprofi
t health insurance,
it would allow for a pot of
money that would be able
to provide care and still
save $11 billion in 2022,
according to a fi gures
from national researcher
the RAND Corporation.
However, opponents
of the bill argue that a
single-payer health care
system would increase
state taxes by more than
$250 billion with the bulk
of these costs borne by
employers, and would
eliminate more than
160,000 jobs across the
state.
“There is a huge
cost involved, but (critics)
don’t talk about the
amount of money people
would save if this became
a reality, which, I
think, would outweigh
whatever cost it may
have,” said Democrat Assemblyman
Jeffrey Dinowitz,
who represents
Riverdale.
Research from the
University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, and
RAND show that the
wealthiest New Yorkers
— less than 5% — will
see an increase in costs.
The program would still
most likely need at least
$139 billion in new tax
revenue, according to the
aforementioned RAND
study, which means potentially
higher taxes.
The sweeping government
program, which
would be funded by a progressive,
graduated tax
on income — runs contrary
to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s
desire to not oppose
new tax hikes on the
wealthy, a point the Democrat
made in Albany in
November.
There is also growing
concerns, according
to some members of the
Assembly, that public
sector unions who are
concerned about the impact
on members’ health
benefi ts, could stall the
bill’s progress. The bill’s
lead architect Manhattan
Assemblyman Richard
Gottfried, a retiring
Democrat at the end of
2022, amended the language
to his long-standing
bill explicitly allaying
those concerns,
which he hopes will lead
public sector unions to
not just withdraw opposition,
but to support the
New York Health Act.
In 2021, despite a Democratic
supermajority in
the state Assembly, the
bill was not brought to
a vote. Advocates hope,
with 32 co-sponsors in
both the Assembly and
the state Senate, the New
York Health Act can be
actualized to improve
health care deserts like
the South Bronx.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Bronx Dems set to push
single-payer health care system
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