Good Heavens, Cuomo -- How Could You?!

Part 2

In my last post, I showed that -- with respect to healthcare -- Governor Cuomo has demonstrated himself apparently indifferent to the suffering of very many New Yorkers. I based my information on an email I got from Bob Lederer MPH, who is Executive Director of the Physicians for a National Health Program - New York Metro Chapter.  In the body of his email he included a link to a statement by the advocacy group Health Care For All New York -- a statement that I quoted in its entirety. This statement got me so exercised, that I dashed off my angry reaction to the failures it criticized, which was the post I published.

Only when I cooled down a little did I realize that I neglected to bring out what was the most damning indictment of all -- the attachment Bob included in his email. This attachment he described as "a compilation of research that the PNHP [Physicians for a National Health Plan] team has done."

At the very bottom of this compilation, you may read the following:

"Realities of Single Payer"

"REALITIES OF SINGLE PAYER PRAISES GOVERNOR CUOMO’S UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE COVERAGE PROPOSAL

The Realities of Single Payer coalition applauds the Governor’s efforts to achieve universal access to health care for all New Yorkers. Our broad-based coalition of employers, health care providers, labor unions, health plans and brokers fully support his approach of building on the success of the Affordable Care Act, which has reduced the number of uninsured in New York to historically low levels and reduced the cost of individual coverage by 50 percent.
Convening a Commission for Universal Access to Health Care to identify policy options to improve access to care and strengthen New York’s commercial insurance market is a pragmatic and progressive approach to attaining universal coverage. We look forward to contributing to the policy objectives of the Commission.”

For those who don't know, the "Realities of Single Payer" is a coalition of insurance companies who are dead set against any form of insurance that is not commercial, profit-driven insurance. Check out the link above for a sample of the lies and distortions they put out for any one who will listen. And what do you think motivates them? It's money of course, a great deal of which they stand to lose if there is only one insurer in New York State instead of many insurers, each with its CEO making many millions of dollars, and each with its bureaucracy of gate keepers dedicated to increasing profits and dividends by limiting healthcare or denying it altogether. This coalition of business-as-usual types came out with their statement at a time so closely following the issuance of Cuomo's that one might suspect (if one was a cynical type) that each was in collusion with the other!

Obamacare represented a great step forward, but it has many flaws that need remedying, of which not a few are based on the fact that it was built upon the profit-driven corporations that agreed to them -- which was why they agreed to them in the first place! It was a handout to the insurance industry!  

I hold as axiomatic the view that when it comes to keeping people healthy, or healing them when they're sick, PROFITS ARE POISON!  From my point of view, enriching the greedy beast is not the way to go. As I see it, Cuomo's approach to curing what ails our healthcare system is more of the same.

Dio

If you'd like to leave a comment -- which I encourage you to do -- simply click on the number of comments area and share your thoughts in the "comment rectangle" that appears.  Thanks!

Good Heavens, Cuomo -- How Could You?!

A week ago, the advocacy group HCFANY (Health Care For All New York) published a blog post which I quote in its entirety:

The proposed executive budget is shockingly silent on health coverage:

-Health insurance for immigrants left behind by the ACA:  $0

-State premium assistance for people who can’t afford coverage:  $0

-Funding to stabilize the high costs of NY’s individual market: $0.

Instead, the people get a “commission” of so-called experts. What can a commission tell us about health coverage that we don’t already know?  Here’s what we already know:  coverage reduces mortality; coverage reduces morbidity; coverage brings people out of poverty; coverage provides economic security to people.

Coverage matters. There are plenty of giveaways in this budget for the health care industry. But no investment to provide the health coverage that would make such a difference to so many New Yorkers. State leaders in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington have taken big steps on coverage.  But not here in New York, where over a million people are uninsured and millions more are struggling to afford their insurance.

New York’s advocates, including HCFANY, have developed agendas over the years that would move New York towards universal coverage. Our most progressive advocates have proposed a bold single-payer plan.  New York could take several smaller steps that would immediately ease the financial burden of accessing health care in New York: (1) state premium subsidies for people who buy their own plans and have trouble affording them; or (2) a public option for people who want a cheaper alternative to private plans.

The most heartbreaking oversight in the budget is that it does nothing to help the 400,000 New Yorkers who are uninsured because of their immigration status. Again, there are simple steps that New York could take to help. Governor Cuomo could have proposed an expansion of Child Health Plus to young adult immigrants, as Governor Newsom did. He could have been bolder and expanded the Essential Plan to all low-income adults, regardless of status. If health care is a human right, why are there so many New Yorkers whose birthplace leaves them without health coverage?

State premium assistance, a public option, immigrant coverage: all would have been progressive achievements to crow about – something that would let HCFANY agree wholeheartedly with Governor Cuomo that New York is the “most progressive big state in the nation.”

After this shocking report, there was an invitation to comment. So I posted: "This does seem to tell us where Gov. Cuomo stands on all these matters -- apparently centered smack-dab in the desires of the Health Care Industry, and discernibly not at all on the needs of his constituents, who have been pleading for help.  I wonder why does Cuomo's position seem so counter to the desires of the people?" 

Well, for me, the answer seems straight forward: Cuomo, who is sitting on an enormous war chest of dollars, remembers where a lot of that money must have come from -- corporate interests, of which a sizable portion probably came from the Healthcare Industry.  Note well: I am not accusing, I am guessing -- but it's a pretty good guess, wouldn't you think?  With notable exceptions, most of our Federal government has been for sale; why shouldn't our state -- which has been less than conspicuous for honesty and integrity -- be likewise offered to the highest bidder?

However that may be, it's obvious that Cuomo is trying a tactic designed not only to delay our progress but also to vitiate the considerable momentum our movement has developed. Just as runaway trucks can be slowed by artificial hills of gravel and sand, nothing will grind  us to a halt better than empty words -- a lot of them.

All these empty words can be countered by a few pungent ones, such as, GOVERNOR: CUT THE B.S. AND DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM! The problem, should he need reminding, is that people are dying, their families going bankrupt because of an out-of-control, extortionate, profit-driven healthcare system. And what he suggests is another commission?  

And it's not only Cuomo. Many of our nominally Democratic Assembly people,  who reliably voted for NYHA because they knew the Republican Senate would just as reliably bat it down -- these nominal Democrats, I say, will remember the source of the money that got them elected  -- UNLESS WE SPEAK UP!

And the general public, most of whom, I fear, have never even heard of the NYHA -- even fine Doctors and Nurses -- will be ignorant of what Cuomo is doing to us UNLESS WE SPEAK UP! 

I feel that this last is most important. One commentator  -- seeing what he perceived to be a waffling even on the part of so-called progressive Democrats -- asked "what shall we do -- take to the streets?" He was being serious. We have in our Healthcare Industrial Complex a huge vested interest, which will expend all its resources -- and they are very many -- to keep single payer from becoming law. By insisting that in this particular instance -- healthcare -- the profit motive be set aside, we are getting uncomfortably close to the beating heart of the corporate monster that owns this country.

Dio

PS: If you'd like to leave a comment, and I hope you will, simply click on the number of comments area, and share your thoughts in the "comment box" that appears.

ACCORDING TO SPECTRUM,

SINGLE-PAYER MAY NOT PASS

EVEN WITH DEMOCRATS IN CONTROL

Just this morning, I got a link which you all should read:

Single-Payer May Not Pass Even With Democrats in Control

It lists 3 reasons -- (1) The cost, (2) The wariness of some unions, and (3) Cuomo's unwillingness to take risks.

The money figure -- $139 Billion -- in indeed formidable. But the article describes that cost as "just to establish the program" (implying that future costs might well be more), and a graphic is presented showing that $139 Billion virtually swallowing up the annual state budget (as if it would cost $139 Billion every year). The article's presentation so far, in my opinion, betrays its corporate slant, although it does concede that once implemented, the plan is expected to save taxpayers money, but finding the dollars for the initial startup could prove very challenging. The article does not mention how much money NYHA would save tax payers, which has been estimated in the billions. 

Granted, finding the start-up money will  be challenging, but that problem is not limitless; it is finite, which means it is possible to solve: Where there's a will, there's a way.

The wariness of some unions in endorsing NYHA is something we discussed in the previous post.  (If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to check it out). But I want to note here that the Spectrum camera shows the initial sponsor of the legislation, Gustavo Rivera, earnestly explaining that the latest version of the bill "is still being drafted. 'It's not ready yet,'"  It's hard to conceive that Rivera, the likely incoming Chair of the Senate Health Committee, would allow this bill to come to a vote if he thought it wouldn't pass. This is where the negotiations come in. We are going to find out that where there's a will, there's a way.

As for Cuomo, yes of course he's known to be cautious, but he is shown telling the Spectrum reporter that there would be a transition, there would be things he agreed with, things he disagreed with, "but one thing is for sure: we will make rapid, remarkable change."

How rapid? How remarkable? 

Well, here's my take on all this: The start-up cost, the union's reluctance, and Cuomo's caution -- each of these things will be brought up by members who in past years gladly got brownie points by voting for the bill, safe in the knowledge that with the conservative control of the Senate, it never would pass. But now that things are changed, these members will very likely remember the source of the money that got them elected -- much of it from corporate donors,  much in fact from the healthcare industry itself.  Indeed, the same can very likely be said of Cuomo himself. And his action, just as State lawmakers action, will depend on how much they see the electorate demanding it. 

That's where we come in, as activists, and as every day citizens. It's a call to action: We must work all the harder -- the feet of our lawmakers, and our Governor, must be held to the fire!

We must demonstrate  that for ALL our sakes, things can't go on the way they have been -- if for no other reason than its too wasteful of our treasure, not to mention our lives.  Let us raise up the general consciousness so  we can prove once again: 

IF WE HAVE THE WILL, THEY WILL FIND THE WAY.

Dio

PS: If you'd like to comment (and I encourage you to do so), click on the number of comments area, which will bring up a "comment rectangle" in which you can share your thoughts. Don't be afraid to teach me something! I'm learning all the time.