20 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 12, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM THE QUEENS editorial PUBLISHER & EDITOR CO-PUBLISHER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF VP, EVENTS, WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA ART DIRECTOR ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR ARTISTS SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER STAFF REPORTERS CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS EVENTS COORDINATOR ASSISTANT TO PUBLISHER CLASSIFIED MANAGER CONTROLLER PRESIDENT & CEO VICE PRESIDENT VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS BOB BRENNAN ROBERT POZARYCKI AMY AMATO-SANCHEZ NIRMAL SINGH CHERYL GALLGHER RON TORINA, JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ EMILY DAVENPORT KATRINA MEDOFF, ANTHONY GIUDICE, ANGELA MATUA SUZANNE MONTEVERDI CLIFF KASDEN, SAMANTHA SOHMER, ELIZABETH ALONI JACLYN HERTLING DEBORAH CUSICK CELESTE ALAMIN MARIA VALENCIA VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS JOSHUA A. SCHNEPS Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: editorial@qns.com for advertising e-mail: ads@qns.com Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Queens Courier All letters sent to THE QUEENS COURIER should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and offi ce telephone numbers, where available, as well as affi liation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE QUEENS COURIER. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to THE QUEENS COURIER within fi ve days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. Schneps Communications assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold THE QUEENS COURIER and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement. WINTER WONDERLAND IN WHITESTONE // PHOTO BY MICHAEL PURPURA, VIA WE LOVE WHITESTONE Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! To submit them to us tag @queenscourier on Instagram, visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps). Keep Obamacare alive Since the Aff ordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) was enacted in 2010, Republicans have worked diligently to have it repealed and replaced. Most of the focus has been on the repeal eff ort rather than what would replace a program that provides health insurance coverage to more than 20 million Americans. Now that Republicans are poised to have full control of Congress and the White House for the fi rst time since 2006, the talk of repealing Obamacare is moving closer to reality. What happens to those Americans who would lose coverage—including nearly 500,000 in Queens alone—and what would replace Obamacare remain a great mystery. To repeal Obamacare without providing an adequate replacement for it— basically, something that provides the same services but at a far lower price to taxpayers—would be an act of fi scal and moral irresponsibility. Members of Congress must not take such a grave measure, one that would have tremendous repercussions on the health of millions and the nation’s economy. According to Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York state would lose billions in funding vital not just to making health insurance aff ordable, but also maintaining the vast networks of medical facilities serving people across the Empire State. Before Obamacare, we wrote about three Queens hospitals forced to shut their doors due to economic turmoil: St. John’s in Elmhurst, Mary Immaculate in Jamaica and Parkway in Forest Hills. Th ese institutions went under largely because the costs of treating uninsured patients and reduced compensation from health insurance providers proved too great for the hospitals to continue. Obamacare hasn’t saved medical institutions as much as it has kept them on life support. New York Health + Hospitals is a prime example of that; the network of city hospitals is bleeding red ink because health care costs continue to spiral upward. To a person, most would acknowledge that Obamacare is far from a panacea for all that ails the health care industry in this country. If anything, Obamacare isn’t doing enough to address the extraordinary costs of medical care. If nothing is done to improve what we already have, the health care system will collapse slowly—but if Obamacare is killed entirely, the health care system will collapse swift ly, and the damage to our economy and to our overall health will be far-reaching. We know the Queens Congressional delegation will fi ght to keep the Aff ordable Care Act alive, but we encourage our readers to reach out to them, thank them for their support and urge them to fi ght to save and improve Obamacare. STORY: Douglaston Macy’s and movie theater to move out, Lowe’s Home Improvement looking to move in SUMMARY: The Douglaston Plaza shopping center is going to lose its Macy’s and MovieWorld theater in 2017, but will be gaining a big box home improvement retailer. REACH: 74,425 (as of Jan. 9, 20 17)
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