Healthcare & New York
The NY Health Act is NYPAN’s #1 legislative priority this year. Again.
The legislation is a single-payer healthcare bill that would provide truly comprehensive healthcare – medical, dental, optical, hearing, mental health and prescription drugs and even long term care – to every resident of the state, regardless of their immigration status, pre-existing conditions, sexual orientation, age, employment status or anything else. Services would be financed using a progressive contribution, and everyone would pay according to their ability to pay.
Currently, many people don’t get regular care, and then high costs for emergency care and Medicaid fall to cash-strapped local governments. Also, currently, everyone pays more than necessary in order to cover huge profits for insurance companies and exorbitant salaries for their executives. A “Medicare for All” system would save New York billions of dollars per year - in part from reduced local property taxes (which currently fund Medicaid), and it would also allow residents to change jobs or start their own businesses more easily because insurance would not be tied to employment.
There are three reasons for the out-of-control cost of American healthcare. All of them are rooted in the belief that it is justifiable to prioritize profits for a favored few over the needs of patients.
1) Unlike other wealthy nations, America does not have a mechanism to control what healthcare providers charge. The effect of not having such a mechanism is multiplied by the growth of medical monopolies.
2) Unlike other wealthy nations, America has made insurance companies part of its’ healthcare system. Not only are they unnecessary, but insurance companies add to costs by creating the need for a huge, expensive bureaucracy to keep track of billing.
3) Unlike other wealthy nations, America does not have a mechanism to control what drug companies charge for pharmaceuticals.
The New York Health Act would save a fortune for New York patients and taxpayers by eliminating insurance and creating a mechanism to set costs with both healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies.
Funds from the US government provided by Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs would be rolled into the program and their benefits would be supplemented.
The phrase “single-payer” simply means New York State would pay the bills. There would be no copays, deductibles, and no need to get prior approval for medical procedures. Patients would not have to worry if physicians were in a network.
A progressive tax system based on ability to pay would be created to fund the program. Most New Yorkers would wind up paying less for healthcare than they pay now. There is nothing radical about this idea. We currently use taxes to fund many of our needs - it’s how we have police, fire and sanitation departments. for instance.
And property taxes throughout the state would see substantial reductions, since about half of them are currently used to fund Medicaid.