On Saturday, Feb. 25, a rally sponsored by Long island Activists, an outgrowth of Bernie Sanders “ Our Revolution,” was held in Huntington.
A full house of 350 people attended to listen to advocates, sign petitions and plan outreach.
It was focussed on ways to mobilize to protect health care on the national level. The event concentrated on urging the New York State Senate to pass the New York Health Act, which has already been passed twice by the New York State Assembly.
The act covers all New Yorkers, including those currently on Medicaid and Medicare, so current federal payments toward these programs will become part of the funding.
Additional funding could come from payroll deductions, instead of paying insurance premiums.
There are no “personal” or “family” plans because these payments are enough to insure everybody.
There will be similar deductions from those with idle income, such as capital gains, stock trades and dividends.
These payments will cover health care for all, with no deductibles, copays or coinsurance.
The plan would cover all medically necessary care, including: prescriptions and durable medical goods, physicals and well child visits, dental and vision services, emergency room visits, pre-natal health services, long-term and palliative care, office visits and in-patient care, mental health and substance abuse treatment.
An analysis by Gerald Friedman, University of Massachusetts, shows the projected savings of the plan. (See New York Assembly Passes Universal Healthcare Bill).
The bill includes detail on the role of medical professionals and administrators, thus defining what each group of experts would have responsibility for, preventing the interference of those who should not be making political decisions.
The success of such a plan on the state level would be a test case to encourage the rest of the country to adopt a rational similar single payer plan.
The Health Act would take private insurance companies out of the equation. It would end all the complications that make coverage as it is organized now and save billions of dollars yearly.
Dr. Tom Price, a long-time enemy of a comprehensive plan, is the new Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The existence of his latest plan to weaken health care coverage has been leaked. It would call for tax credits to those who buy policies in the individual market, offers incentives to use Health Savings Accounts, allows purchase of coverage across state lines and creates high risk pools.
All of these ideas will reduce Medicaid spending, eliminate Planned Parenthood and cover fewer people.
Passage of such a plan is certain to infuriate the millions of insured individuals who have come to like the Affordable Care Act (i.e.Obamacare).
This terrible plan, the latest of Price’s attempts to destroy the ACA, should be roundly rejected by the Congress.
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
