26 THE QUEENS COURIER • AUGUST 31, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
CareConnect, Long Island-based
health insurer, going out of business
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
tbolger@moreypublishing.com
CareConnect, the health insurance unit
of Long Island-based Northwell Health
hospital group, is pulling the plug on its
four-year-old operations, leaving 125,000
enrollees scrambling to fi nd a new insurer,
the company announced Th ursday.
Th e company blamed its failure on
the fact that it had to pay $112 million—
44 percent of its revenue last year—
into the Aff ordable Care Act’s (ACA)
risk-adjustment pool that was designed
to prevent insurers from “cherry-picking”
healthy customers who are less expensive
to cover.
“It has become increasingly clear that
continuing the CareConnect health plan
is fi nancially unsustainable, given the
failure of the federal government and
Congress to correct regulatory fl aws that
have destabilized insurance markets and
their refusal to honor promises of additional
funding,” said Michael Dowling,
Northwell’s president and chief executive
offi cer.
Th e insurer is the second in the New
York State of Health insurance marketplace
created under Obamacare to be put
out to pasture. Health Republic tanked
in 2015.
CareConnect will provide the New
York State Department of Financial
Services with its plan to withdraw from
the marketplace as the insurer begins to
wind down over the next year, the company
said. It will continue to serve members,
patients and providers as well as pay
claims throughout the transition period, it
added. Northwell will help CareConnect’s
more than 200 employees fi nd positions
elsewhere in the system.
Dowling noted that despite the death of
CareConnect, Northwell will continue in
its mission to better manage the health of
its patients and slow the growth of health
care costs.
“Th e market challenges confronting
us require that we continue to be bold
in our thinking,” he said. “Moving forward
on our population health journey,
we will continue to explore new models
of care delivery that will help us accomplish
the triple aim of improving the
patient experience and the health of our
communities, and reducing the per capita
cost of care.”
Queens congressman calls on Secretary of State
to deport ex-Nazi guard living in Jackson Heights
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com
@AngelaMatua
Nearly two dozen elected offi cials have
signed a letter urging Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson to deport a former Nazi
guard living in Jackson Heights.
Jakiw Palij, 94, served as a guard at
the Trawniki camp in Poland where
at least 6,000 Jews were shot to death
on Nov. 3, 1943, according to the
Holocaust Memorial Museum. Queens
Congressman Joe Crowley, along with
20 other elected offi cials, are arguing that
Palij should “face justice” for his crimes.
Th ey also added that New Yorkers
should not be forced to live near “a painful
reminder for Americans who fought
against the Nazis or lost loved ones in the
Holocaust.”
Palij, who offi cially became a U.S. citizen
in 1957 aft er emigrating here eight
years earlier at the age of 26, omitted his
role in the war when applying for citizenship.
His citizenship was revoked in 2003
when offi cials discovered who he was but
the German, Ukraine and Polish governments
refuse to accept him.
“Th ose who participated in the atrocities
of the Holocaust have no place in our communities,”
Crowley said. “Th e Nazis’ crimes
were beyond heinous, and we have the
responsibility to pursue justice on behalf
of their victims. I’m proud to join Reps.
Nadler and Donovan in urging Secretary
Tillerson to decisively step forward and
intervene personally so the victims of Jakiw
Palij’s crimes see justice done.”
Elected offi cials and Queens residents
have for years called for Palij to be deported.
Th e 94-year-old told the New York
Post in 2013 that he was forced to become
a guard along with other teenagers.
“If you tried to run away, they take your
family and shoot all of them,” he told the
Post. “I am not SS. I have nothing to do
with SS.”
Th ough federal prosecutors do not
accuse him of personally killing people in
the camp, they argue that he forced Jews
to work in the camp and prevented then
from escaping.
Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of a special
investigation unit for the Justice
Department, called him ”an essential
component in the machinery of annihilation”
in 2003.
Palij, who worked as a draft sman in the
United States, lives in an apartment on
89th Street. Th ough he was granted Social
Security benefi ts at one point, a spokesperson
for Crowley said he no longer
receives them.
“Jakiw Palij has yet to face justice, and
it’s a dishonor to the Jewish people and
millions of Holocaust victims that he continues
to live freely in New York City,”
Congressman Dan Donovan said. “Th ose
complicit in the Holocaust’s atrocities
don’t deserve to enjoy the rights they took
from others. I hope that Mr. Palij is swift -
ly deported.”
Th e letter was signed by Reps. Jerry
Nadler, Nita Lowey, Th omas Suozzi,
Peter King, Eliot Engel, Adriana Espaillat,
Grace Meng, Nydia Velazquez, Lee
Zeldin, Kathleen Rice, Jose Serrano,
Hakeem Jeff ries, Carolyn Maloney, Louise
Slaughter, Brian Higgins, Paul Tonko,
Yvette Clarke, Gregory Meeks and Sean
Patrick Maloney.
Photo via Shutterstock
Elected offi cials are calling on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to deport a former Nazi guard living
in Jackson Heights.
Photo: Shutterstock