Posted: April 11th, 2012 | Author: Info@greaternycforchange.org | Filed under: Articles, Vote | No Comments »
By Dale Corvino
Dale and other volunteers in Philadelphia
On March 24th, I joined busloads of volunteers from OfA teams – Downtown East, Chelsea/West Village, Harlem, the Bronx – and various other activists groups on the two-hour drive to Philadelphia. We convened at a terminal and there were greeted by OfA staff and local volunteers. We were split up into teams, and assigned volunteer drivers to transport us to various neighborhoods. Our team was shuttled to a shopping plaza in Strawberry Mansion, a neighborhood of North Philadelphia.
On the ground, we met Shirley, an energetic local captain. Shirley provided us with an overview, clipboards and registration forms. We spread out, in teams of two, to all the high-traffic points of the shopping plaza - in front of the supermarket, the dollar store, the ladies’ clothing store, the bus stop. Drizzle reduced the amount of foot traffic in the plaza, but it did pick up once the skies cleared in the afternoon.
We asked passersbys 3 questions: if they were registered to vote, if they were aware of the upcoming primary, and if they were aware of the change in voter ID laws. People’s reactions ranged from supportive and thankful to indifferent. Few were interested in voting in the primary, but knowledge of the change in voter ID laws was very high. Every volunteer signed up at least one new registrant, and at the end of the day we had a total of forty-two. At the end of the day, we were shuttled back to the bus meeting point.
More info about getting ID to meet the new statute can be found at Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) See the section about the Oath/ Affirmation Voter ID form: http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/voterid/VoterAffirmationNoProofofID.pdf, which at least provides for a no-cost proof of identification for voting purposes. The main Philadelphia PennDOT location is at 1530 South Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19147
Suggestions for a day of voter registration:
- Wear comfortable shoes
- Check the forecast (umbrella? rain jacket? sunglasses? layers?)
- Bring snacks, drinks, phone charger and two pens
- Buddy up
- Exchange cell phone numbers
- Learn from your Philadelphia counterparts!
Posted: March 29th, 2012 | Author: Info@greaternycforchange.org | Filed under: Affordable Care Act, Healthcare, Healthcare Stories | No Comments »
by Ethan Rips
Lots of us are, for very good reason, anxious about the arguments just concluded at the Supreme Court about the individual mandate and the Affordable Care Act as a whole.
It occurred to me that it might be a good idea to steer people away from the usual horse race coverage of the main stream media and hack sites like Politico, and toward substantive sources that, while no more capable of predicting what this court will do than anyone else, can provide a wealth of information & unusual ways of considering the issues. Sound good? Here goes:
SCOTUSblog, a blog (OK, the name gives it away) devoted exclusively to doings at the Supreme Court. Sharp observers there.
http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/03/argument-recap-will-medicaid-be-sacrificed/
Dahlia Lithwick at Slate. An insightful observer, great journalist & all-around mensch (can I use that term for a woman or is there a feminine form of that? Fun with Yiddish):
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2012/03/supreme_court_and_obamacare_why_the_conservatives_are_skeptical_of_the_affordable_care_act_.html
Balkinization. A blog by a law professor, populated by more of the same. This is where you go to get down into the weeds of constitutional issues. Cool stuff for obsessive-compulsive types (I couldn’t possibly be referring to myself here, could I?):
http://balkin.blogspot.com/
The Volokh Conspiracy. A blog devoted to the libertarian (boo, hiss) side of legal issues. Know thy enemy. Actually, every once in a while I find myself in agreement with something said by a libertarian with respect to individual liberties. That is definitely not the case when it comes to health care–or health insurance–reform. Nonetheless, when you’re not feeling traumatized, it’s interesting sometimes to see how they think. I wonder if the administration’s lawyers thought of that before they put together their arguments. I certainly hope so.
http://volokh.com/2012/03/28/sg-verrilli-relies-on-the-the-constitutions-preamble/
HTH,
Ethan
Posted: March 29th, 2012 | Author: Info@greaternycforchange.org | Filed under: Affordable Care Act, Articles, Healthcare, Healthcare Stories | No Comments »
by Kelly Cuvar
I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer thirteen years ago. I have never been in remission. What I didn’t know then, as I started my adult life, was that I would have a pre-existing condition for the rest of my life. The fact that I had cancer would be a hurdle made manifest in every aspect of my life; where I live, where I can get adequate care, and how to maintain continuous insurance coverage.
Surviving cancer would not just be managing the disease physically, which is hard enough. The American healthcare system in general and my insurance providers in particular have been a greater affliction for me than cancer. Every single financial and life decision I make revolves around maintaining my ability to get healthcare. All of my life decisions have been mediated through my disease.
I am being absolutely honest–having to worry about insurance is worse than having cancer. I am better able to deal with my illness and survival than I am when trying to obtain and maintain insurance coverage in the private market. It is more stressful than any of the treatments I have gotten over the last thirteen years, or any of the consequences of those treatments. What cancer hasn’t been able to do, our broken healthcare system has done: forced me to deal with anxiety on levels I have never known before.
After working so hard on the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I realize we didn’t get what we wanted, but we got a few things that we need. For a society that considers healthcare a commodity, we are getting closer to being able to celebrate the goal of a healthy society. (The way I see it, the goal of a capitalized healthcare system is to make money; the goal of socialized medicine is a healthy society.) No lifetime or annual caps on an insurance policy, and the most important thing in the bill to me, pre-existing conditions will be a thing of the past. It will change my life.
Re-living the healthcare fight has ignited many feelings in me and my fellow activists. We are proud of our work, and we stand by it. We look forward to a healthy society, and we will always work towards that.
This speech was originally given on the steps of the Federal Court House in Foley Square, New York City, on March 26, 2012, the eve of the Supreme Court hearings on the Affordable Care Act. The Court will likely decide their ruling in June of this year.
Posted: March 27th, 2012 | Author: Ethan | Filed under: Articles | No Comments »
This week marks the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As legions of Koch-addled crazies take their case to the Republican Supreme Court, we thought it might be useful to take a step back and remind ourselves what has already been implemented and what is scheduled to take place over the next few years. Then a brief note on the ongoing wrestling match in Albany over the establishment of New York State’s health insurance exchange.
What’s Already in Place?
- The “donut hole” in Medicare prescription drug coverage is finally being closed. Prior to passage of the ACA, many senior had to pay out-of-pocket for annual drug costs over $2,840, up to $6,448, at which point coverage would kick in again. Discounts on prescription drugs last year saved 5.1 million seniors over $3.2 billion.
- It is now illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
- It is now illegal for insurance companies to put lifetime caps on insurance coverage. 105 million Americans had insurance plans with lifetime caps before the ACA was passed. Catastrophic illness, which before the ACA was often not covered by insurance due to lifetime caps, was the cause of 60% of all bankruptcies in the US before passage of the ACA. Elimination of the caps removes a major cause of such bankruptcies.
- Parents of children up to age 26 whose insurance includes dependent coverage can now put their children on their insurance plans. 2.5 million more young adults had health insurance as of June 2011 than were covered before the law passed.
- Insurance companies now have to cover preventive care for free, and Medicare is providing free preventive care as well. Last year such services were provided to almost 87 million Americans. Preventive care, which includes regular doctor visits, vaccines and screenings for chronic illnesses , helps keep relatively minor illnesses from turning into serious and more expensive ones.
What’s Coming Up?
- By 2022, 33 million more Americans will have health insurance. This will mean they can afford to get sick and will not have to rely on emergency rooms when they do get sick, a practice whose high costs get passed along to all of us. The more people are insured, the cheaper it will be for all of us in the long run.
- The setup of health insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, in 2014 will provide tax credits and cost sharing, making insurance less expensive. This will reduce the financial burden of health insurance for people of modest means.
- The ban on denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions, which is restricted to children right now, will be extended to everyone in 2014. Insurers will also be forbidden to charge higher rates to women and people who are ill.
- Various cost containment mechanisms, such as improving the quality of health care delivery, will also go into effect soon.
Now all we have to do is convince the Supreme Court that enabling millions of Americans to afford health care, get preventive care and contain costs is a far more reliable guarantee of our individual liberties than some dessicated libertarian excuse for shielding the wealthy from responsibility for the condition of the society to which they owe their fortunes.
Meanwhile, in New York State…
Republicans in the New York state Senate continue to block efforts by Governor Cuomo to set up a health insurance exchange, falsely claiming it will cost too much, when in reality, the federal government will cover all the startup expenses–assuming New York acts on it by the July 1 deadline. Here’s a great editorial from today’s New York Daily News: http://tinyurl.com/835cntq
Posted: March 8th, 2012 | Author: Info@greaternycforchange.org | Filed under: Affordable Care Act, Articles, Healthcare, Healthcare Stories | No Comments »
by Tim Foley
A critical part of the new health care law is being blocked by a handful of Republicans in the New York State Senate. New York must act before this July to secure tens of millions of federal dollars to set up a ‘health insurance exchange,’ and before the end of this year to remain in control of the process. Otherwise, New Yorkers will be lumped in with the default federal exchange along with the states that are openly defying healthcare reform in the courts, and New York’s historic, strong consumer protections could be undermined.
What exactly is an exchange? These transparent marketplaces for individuals without coverage and small businesses will work a lot like Expedia or Travelocity, but instead of shopping for the best airfares, New Yorkers will be able to compare health insurance plans and buy the one that’s the best fit. By pooling together, individuals and small businesses will have the same purchasing power available to large companies. Federal subsidies will be available to individuals and families to cap the premiums at a percentage of their income. And, to guarantee you’re getting high quality plans, members of Congress and their staffs will also be required to purchase their health insurance from the exchange.
More than 1 million New Yorkers will be receiving their insurance through the exchange by 2014.
Why is it important for New York State to move forward with its own health insurance exchange, rather than risk defaulting to the federal one? Here are the top seven reasons.
1) If New York State establishes its own exchange, we have every reason to believe it will establish a more progressive version of the exchange that could then be a model for other states. Historically, New York has been more progressive on health insurance issues than the federal norm, including already having a modified version of guaranteed issue and consumer rating (which the rest of the country gets through the Affordable Care Act), as well as prior approval for health insurance increases (which the rest of the country is still waiting on!) A more active, progressive, consumer-friendly and active purchaser, one that requires insurance companies be good actors rather than only providing plans that meet the definition of exchange-ready, will likely only come from New York building its own, because the state has always been on the cutting edge.
Keep in mind we don’t think a New York-designed exchange will be better because our legislature is so hot — clearly they’re having trouble passing a bill to establish the mechanism to build an exchange in the first place. But we tend to staff very competent, very progressive agencies, particularly when it comes to health. For all of its flaws, the Medicaid Redesign Team yielded much, much better results than any legislature that’s tackled the issue of reducing Medicaid costs.
That’s reason enough, and indeed the main reason — we think we can probably do it better and in a way that other smaller states will copy.
But here are a few others.
2) One of the functions of the exchange is to have “no wrong door” — if you’re trying to get insurance on the website or by calling and office and instead you qualify for the Children’s Health Plus or Medicaid or some other program like Families Health Plus, you’re automatically shuffled off to enroll in that program without having to go to another site or make another phone call. For that reason, it’s better for the consumer that everything be operated by New York State rather than some of it operated in state and some of it out of state.
3) You can potentially create a public option in a state if you’re also operating the exchange. Connecticut and Oregon are moving forward with their own versions of a public option, for example, and the long-term chances of opening up public options are state-by-state rather than federally (“Duh” says anyone who’s watched Congress for the past year and a half). I suppose you could find a way to create one even if you weren’t operating the exchange, but it becomes that much more difficult. Assemblyman Gottfried, among others, has been very keen on exploring some type of a New York public option.
4) #3 would also apply to if you want to take the steps to set up a statewide single-payer, like Vermont is doing.
5) There’s money for New York to set up its exchange now — and a lot of money. The feds will pay for all the start up costs if the state sets it up and hits the deadlines, including an important one this July. If we don’t hit the deadlines and default to the federal exchange, we may be able to set ours up in the future but we’ll entirely be paying for it yourself. And given #1, we’re going to want to do it sooner rather than later.
6) There’s some real concern that the feds may have real trouble getting the default exchange set up in time, given that there’s technically not enough money to do so based on HHS’s current budget. Unlike money for the state exchanges, money for the federal exchange is not automatic in the budget – HHS has to figure out how to make it work with its existing budget. Since so many states are refusing to set up their own exchanges, and the GOP is intent on blocking it in states that absolutely should be moving forward on their own (like New York and Minnesota), making the federal exchange that much harder to set up is another way that Republicans have been trying to sabotage implementation of health care reform so they can say, “Oh, see, it doesn’t work.” New York State alone has nearly 10% of the people who would get their insurance through the exchange and would, by far, be the biggest state other than Texas that the federal exchange would need to accommodate. That’s going to be a huge challenge.
Most of these are policy reasons or concerns related to the implementation of reform. But there’s one other reason that’s purely political because, well, the only reason New York hasn’t already passed this law is purely political.
7) It’s just stupid not to set up a state exchange. In June 2011, Governor Cuomo, the Democrats in the Assembly and the Republicans in the State Senate had agreed to a compromise to get the bill passed. But then Senator Greg Ball in a Republican conference meeting that summer said, “Wait, is this Obamacare?” Then they were against it. That’s it. That’s the whole reason.
(See the New York Times article, “G.O.P. Senators in Albany Block Federal Aid to Fulfill Part of Health Law”)
It’s worth repeating: the Republicans in the Senate were absolutely for an exchange until they realized it was Obamacare. Then they began throwing up nonsense objections because of the potential costs (the feds will PAY FOR THE START UP COSTS, people! You just have to pass the bill in time!) It’s obstruction pure and simple, and not even principled obstruction. It’s lame. And it shouldn’t be happening in what the Governor calls “the progressive capital of the nation.”
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So what can you do? Call your State Senator today! We recommend calling State Senators Hannon (Garden City, Long Island): 516-739-1700 and Lanza (Staten Island): 718-984-4073, but you can also click here for others. Tell them New Yorkers can’t afford to wait, and that you expect them to put the exchange in the state budget. Let us know how it goes!
For more about this issue and a better script, click here.
