It’s Time to Pass the New York Health Act

“Healthcare is right” (Photo: Ed Reed / Mayoral Photo Office)

In fact, New York’s profit-driven healthcare system continues to fail the marginalized communities represented by the Legislature. As a matter of racial and gender justice, we must eventually pass single payer medical care at the legislative session of this state.

Prior to our inauguration, we each worked in or around the New York healthcare system. Reyes as an oncology nurse, Forest as a maternal and child health nurse, and Gonzales Rojas as an advocate for sexual and reproductive health care.

Through our work and our own living experience as a woman of African Latino, Black, Latina, how our health care system makes racial and gender inequality in our beloved New York. I have seen directly whether it will be reproduced.

Our cities and states have been in a pandemic for over two years now, disproportionately affecting the black, Latin, immigrant and low-income communities we represent, and creating a health system that is already broken. I’m kneeling. On behalf of the districts of Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, we have a duty to fight for the health and well-being of the members who elected us, and what is good for them is good for millions of other New Yorkers. I know It’s time for us and our colleagues in the Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign the New York Health Act.

Parliamentary colleague Richard Gottfried first New York Health Act.. Yes, you are reading it correctly – 31 years. The bill has been repeated several times since then, but its core beliefs are the same. The New York Health Act states, “Create a universal single-payer health plan, New York Health, to provide comprehensive health insurance for all New Yorkers.”

The New York Health Plan replaces existing private insurance plans for all workers and residents and includes all benefits required by Medicare, Medicaid, Child Health Plus, and the Affordable Care Act. With a universal single payer, New Yorkers no longer have to rely on their families or employers, pay exorbitant monthly premiums, or give up compensation altogether.The plan requires the state to impose two new progressive taxes, but research shows that New Yorkers are still Significantly less payment Overall for health care under the New York Health Act than they are now.

Decoupling health insurance coverage from employment and reducing health care costs will have a dramatic positive impact on our representative blacks, Latino Americans, immigrants, women, and low-income New Yorkers. .. We know what black and Latin people have experienced in the last two years Higher unemployment rate For a long time. According to a report from the Community Service Society of New York in 2021 22 percent of low-income New Yorkers Those who have lost employment income since the first wave of COVID-19 have also lost their health insurance coverage. Of that 22%, more than half were Latin.

We know that women and marginalized genders have disproportionately left the workforce to provide childcare to families who did not, resulting in loss of employer coverage. increase. Recent state budgets have excluded Coverage for All, so undocumented New Yorkers will not yet have access to Medicaid. Lack of coverage, inadequate coverage, gaps in coverage, and medical costs The biggest barrier to access to care For the color community. The New York Health Act will remove most of these barriers.

In addition to reducing the cost of vulnerable families and giving all New Yorkers access to comprehensive health care regardless of situation or situation, the New York Health Act improves the overall quality of care that New Yorkers receive. Helps to make you. By reducing costs and leveling the competitive arena for coverage, our SafetyNet Hospitals are no longer burdened by New Yorkers who have nowhere else to go. Safetynet hospitals in each of our districts were at the forefront of the pandemic, serving primarily black and Latin members of our community.They are also the most resource deficient, thanks to years Unfair distribution of Medicaid funds..

Our profit-focused healthcare system puts the entire New York hospital system and the providers working within it at stake. If you don’t have enough money data Indicates that the quality of hospital care will be reduced. this is, Black New Yorker Double chance For all birthers in our community who are hospitalized with more recent Omicron variants than Caucasians, but rely on hospitals for pregnancy and postpartum care. In the last two years, at least three black women (one from each of our representatives) have died from preventable causes during or shortly after childbirth in the hospital.

Single payer universal health insurance provides to nurses, midwives, home health care workers, and other health care providers Bargaining power For fairer wages and safer working conditions, and allow healthcare providers to focus on patient care rather than cost. You can also define what comprehensive coverage looks like and expand the scope of reproduction and LGBTQ healthcare. Both of these have been attacked nationwide.

New York Health Act has already passed Congress four times.. After years of support and securing a majority of Democrats in the state legislature, we finally got majority support for the bill in both houses of parliament. This year is the year to achieve it.

We were fed up with the collapse of the legislature and having to work with uncooperative executives, and while the members were suffering, we couldn’t realize the reforms for years. We are sick and tired of all the stories about leading progressive causes without real progressive action. We are fundamentally unjustified and try to tinker with the edges to reform the healthcare system that perpetuates the same gender and racial inequality that we have chosen to deal with. I’m sick of it. We are sick of it. Now I need the New York Health Act.

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Parliamentarian Jecica Nsares Rojas is the first Latino parliamentarian to represent Parliamentary District 34, including the Woodside, Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, Corona, and Queens sections. Prior to his inauguration, he was Managing Director of the National Institute of Reproductive Health, fighting for policies to increase access to reproductive and sexual health in the Latina / x community, including New York.

Parliamentarians Karines Reyes, RN, represent the 87th Parliamentary District of Bronx, including the neighborhoods of Castle Hill, Parkchester, Van Nest, and West Farms. She is a daily allowance nurse for oncology at the Montefiore Medical Center. In 2020, she returned to nursing, especially at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congressman Fara Sfranc Forest (RN) represents the neighborhood of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, and the 57th Parliamentary District, which consists of parts of Bed-Stuy, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights. Prior to her election, she worked as a health nurse for her mother and organized tenants in the neighborhood she currently represents.

On twitter @votejgr, @ KarinesReyes87When @ phara4assembly..