HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW!

NEW YORK CITY ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
“Defend Our New Health Care Law!”

A Rally to Celebrate the First Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act

Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 1 p.m.
at Community Healthcare Network’s Long Island City Health Center

Introductory Remarks by Mark Hannay
Director, Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign

 

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to “Defend Our New Health Care Law!”  …and happy birthday to the Affordable Care Act!

We are gathered here today to celebrate the one-year anniversary of national health care reform, and to recommit ourselves to the fight for comprehensive, quality, affordable, and accessible health care for all in New York and all in America. 

Thank you for coming today, and for all you have done to further health care justice in our state and nation.  Our work is not yet done, but we’ve made a great step forward.

One year ago this week, after 15 months of protracted debate and political grandstanding, the 110th Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and President Obama signed it into law.  This historic piece of legislation is on par with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act.

After nearly a century of struggle, America has finally started down the road of health care for all.  We are no longer the only industrialized democracy to fail to affirm health care as a human right for all members of our society.  Thank you for making that happen.

Because of our new law, millions of Americans will no longer have to fear for their own health and well-being because of untreated illness or injury, and millions of Americans and the families will no longer have to fear bankruptcy because of sickness or an accident.  Up to 32 million Americans currently without health insurance will get coverage, we’ll ALL get better coverage, and millions of people will have access to a regular doctor and health center, many for the first time in their lives.

Let me tell you how the Affordable Care Act has already helped many New Yorkers:

 

  • Nearly 200,000 currently uninsured young adult New Yorkers are now eligible to stay on their parents’ health plans if they don’t have coverage from a job or qualify for a public program.
  • Over 215,000 New Yorkers on Medicare received a prescription drug rebate check for $250 last year, and this year they are getting a 50% discount on brand-name drugs when the reach the Part D coverage gap.
  • Nearly 3 million New Yorkers on Medicare this year now have access to free preventive health services.
  • Approximately 285,000 small businesses across New York are eligible for tax credits to help them pay for health insurance for their workers.
  • The brand-new “New York Bridge” program started up last fall to provide affordable coverage to uninsured New Yorkers with a pre-existing medical condition, at less than half the cost of the private market.  Hundreds have already signed up for this program, and are now getting the care they need to stay alive and live as full a life as they can.
  • Our state’s new consumer assistance program, called “Community Health Advocates”, began operating last fall.  This network of non-profit, community-based organizations all across our state is already helping many New Yorkers understand their health insurance options, get signed up for coverage, and trouble-shoot any problems they have when using it.
  • Our state’s Insurance Department is now reviewing every premium increase proposed by insurers and making them justify the rates, and are rolling back rates when they are not justified.
  • Scores of community health center networks, like this one we are gathered in today, are moving forward to expand their operations to serve communities that are medically underserved.
  • All New Yorkers with private insurance have benefited from the new “Patients’ Bill of Rights” protections that went into effect starting six months ago.  The provisions include appeal rights including and external review outside of the insurance company, protection against policy rescissions simply because of filing many claims, limiting annual benefit caps and ending lifetime benefit caps, an expanded choice of primary care providers, out-of-network coverage for emergency care, and free preventive care services specific to one’s medical conditions.
  • These are just a few ways New Yorkers are already benefiting from national health care reform, and you’ll hear some more stories from some of our other speakers today.  This is what change looks like.

The Affordable Care Act provides an overall architecture for health care reform across our nation, but its full potential can only be realized in partnership with states.  One year ago, Congress and the President played their role.  Now it is up to our political leaders here in New York to step forward and play their role.

By the end of this year’s state legislative session at the end of June, Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature must enact legislation to plan and open a new health insurance exchange, and to take advantage of nearly unlimited federal funds available to help us move forward with implementing the Affordable Care Act in New York.  If we’re smart and strategic as a state as we proceed, we can use this moment as a springboard and this new national law as a platform for true universal health care in New York.  The Affordable Care Act is a floor, not a ceiling, for states, and we can do better and go beyond this new law, just as Vermont is doing right now.

We have a long, progressive history of “doing the right thing” on health care in our state, but we will again be up against the very same powerful vested special interests that did everything they could to stop health reform in Congress a year ago.  They have a very different vision of health care in New York and America than we do.  They see health care as a market commodity and opportunity to make a profit.  We see health care as a human right to be provided to all members of our society. 

We only have 3 months to pass this needed legislation in New York, really not much time at all.  We will have to fight to make sure that there is a transparent process open to public participation, and that we craft legislation and policies to help everyday New Yorkers get health care, and not just the politically-well-connected special interests make money.  And we want to make sure that as we move forward, we aim for as expansive a vision as possible, to finally get to true universal health care in our state.  I invite you to join with me and with our statewide coalition, Health Care for All New York, to make that happen – are you with me?

Finally, as we move forward here in New York, we also have defend our new health care law in Congress.  It’s under attack from political forces very opposed to health care justice in America.  They want to repeal the law either fully or partially, defund the law either fully or partially, and defund the agencies charged with rolling it out.  We cannot let that happen.  We must say emphatically to Congress and the President, “Keep moving forward, no turning back!”

Si se puede!  Yes we can!