Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is New York Health?
A. New York Health is a state bill that would set up a universal single-payer healthcare system in New York state similar to an expanded Medicare plan or the Canadian system. Instead of having to worry about having health insurance through your job, spouse, or buying it on your own, all New Yorkers would automatically have their healthcare covered by a public statewide fund, regardless of age, employment, or financial means. Everyone would have access to healthcare the way everyone has access to the fire department, libraries, and schools – public services provided without your ever having to worry about a bill. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Why do we need New York Health?
A. Every day, five New Yorkers die needlessly due to lack of health coverage. It’s so common that it no longer makes the headlines. In the last ten years, an estimated 20,000 New Yorkers died unnecessarily due to lack of health insurance. Almost 3 million New Yorkers lack health insurance, and millions more have plans that would bankrupt them when faced with a medical emergency. In fact, across the country, every 90 seconds medical bills push an American family into bankruptcy.

If you’re lucky enough to have a decent health plan, chances are you have been forced to cover more of the cost every year, while having to fight denials and limitations. The fees charged by private insurers have risen by over 50% in the last five years throughout the state. New Yorkers deserve better. We should not have to plan our jobs and lives around how to pay for essential healthcare. If you agree, sign the petition of support now.

Q. What is single-payer healthcare?
A. “Single payer” is a simple and proven solution to the two intertwined crises in our current healthcare system: the skyrocketing costs and the fact that millions lack access to care. A single-payer system like New York Health provides everyone with guaranteed, comprehensive healthcare at a much lower cost by eliminating the middleman that currently stands between you and your doctor: the insurance companies.

Under New York Health, doctors and hospitals would be paid for their work by a single tax-supported fund, similar to Medicare, rather than wasting time and money dealing with hundreds of insurance bureaucracies as they do now in our “multi-payer” system. Instead of the multitude of plans currently available, each with different networks of providers and different services covered, every resident is automatically enrolled in the same comprehensive plan.

In addition, New York Health removes all financial barriers to care. The system is funded through progressive taxation, which means you only pay a percentage of your income based on what you can afford, unlike the skyrocketing fees charged by private insurers. NYH would also eliminate all co-pays and deductibles. Finally, New Yorkers would no longer have to worry about finding “in-network” doctors or being stuck with a bill for healthcare due to an insurance denial. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. What services are covered under New York Health?
A. New York Health will fully cover all medically necessary services comprehensive outpatient and inpatient medical care, primary and preventive care, prescription drugs, laboratory tests, mental health, reproductive health, rehabilitation, dental, vision, hearing, and medical supply costs. All New Yorkers would gain access to all benefits required by current state insurance law or provided by the state public employee package, Family Health Plus, Child Health Plus, Medicare, or Medicaid, as well as others added by the plan. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Who would be covered under New York Health?
A. New York Health covers all residents of New York state from birth until death, regardless of health, financial or employment status. Coverage follows you if you travel, retire, or lose your job.

We provide fire and police protection for everyone – why shouldn’t we do that for healthcare? Under NYH, no one would be denied care because of pre-existing conditions and no insurance company clerks would tell your doctor how to practice medicine. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Won’t it cost more to cover everyone?
A. No. Though it seems hard to believe, it’s much cheaper to cover everyone. In fact, our government already spends MORE per person on healthcare just for the elderly and poor under Medicare and Medicaid than the Canadian government spends to provide healthcare for every citizen throughout their entire life. Why? There are many reasons. Right now our government shoulders the burden of paying for those whose care is most costly — the elderly and the needy — while private health insurers reap billions in profits by insuring those who need care the least — those healthy enough to work. This makes no sense.

Rather, as proven in every country with universal healthcare, when everyone is in the same public insurance pool, our money gets used more efficiently. More of our money goes to providing actual healthcare instead of being wasted on insurance companies’ marketing, claims denial departments, shareholder profits, or bloated CEO salaries.

New York Health would also bring costs down by reducing doctors’ expenses. Doctors spend less when they don’t have to pay for extra staff to manage all the intricate billing that comes with private insurers. For example, Duke University’s 900 bed hospital employs 900 medical billers to deal with all the insurance company paperwork. The cost of employing huge departments to handle all this red tape gets passed on to you, making everything more expensive. By contrast, Toronto General hospital has only 3 medical billers on staff. Why? Because a single payer system is more efficient and therefore cheaper.

Finally, New York Health would save money by giving people more access to care in a timely way before conditions worsen and become more costly to treat in the emergency room. Even prescription drugs would cost less, since the state would negotiate bulk prices. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Won’t Obama’s bill solve our healthcare problems?
A. Obama’s bill is a starting point nationally, but New York can and should do better. Even after the law goes into effect, roughly 1.6 million New Yorkers will remain uninsured – more than the entire population of Manhattan. These people will have to fight to get life saving care; they will be treated like second-class citizens and their families will face devastating bills for what little care they do receive. Millions more New Yorkers will be forced to buy private insurance and will end up with inadequate plans that leave them one emergency away from bankruptcy.

In 2008, New York lawmakers conducted a study of the most cost-effective way to provide healthcare to all New Yorkers. The answer was single payer, which would reduce overall healthcare expenditures in New York by $20 billion annually by 2019. The state study said that single payer would be $28 billion cheaper annually by 2019 than the insurance mandate enacted by Congress. In addition to saving money, single payer was the only plan that guaranteed that everyone would have access to healthcare services.

By contrast, Obama’s healthcare bill does little to reduce health costs. Obama’s bill is modeled on the Massachusetts health system, which has not saved the state any money since it was enacted in 2006. Even worse, medical bills still cause more than half of all bankruptcies there.

There are too many New Yorkers who are one major illness away from losing their home, and too many New Yorkers are stuck in a job they hate because they need the insurance. To save New Yorkers – to save ourselves and our families – from this fate, we need to pass a truly universal, single-payer healthcare system.

Q. How does New York Health reduce costs?
A. New York Health reduces costs by cutting waste, not by denying care to patients. As proven in other countries, providing universal coverage is actually much cheaper since you aren’t paying for insurance companies’ marketing, claims denial departments, shareholder profits, or bloated CEO salaries. Also, when people have more access to care, they get treatments earlier before conditions worsen and become more costly. Even prescription medicine costs less, since the government could negotiate bulk prices.

In addition, doctors charge less when they don’t have to pay for extra staff to manage all the intricate billing that comes with private insurers. For example, Duke University’s 900 bed hospital employs 900 medical billers to deal with all the insurance company paperwork. The cost of employing huge departments to handle all this red tape gets passed on to you, making everything more expensive. By contrast, Toronto General hospital has only 3 medical billers on staff. Why? Because a single payer system is more efficient and therefore cheaper.

In fact, our government already spends MORE per person on healthcare just for the elderly and poor under Medicare and Medicaid than the Canadian government spends to provide healthcare for every citizen. By contrast, Obama’s healthcare bill does little to reduce health costs. Obama’s bill is modeled on the Massachusetts health system, which has not saved the state any money since it was enacted in 2006. Even worse, medical bills still cause more than half of all bankruptcies there.

NYH controls costs through:

  • Simplifying Paperwork: getting rid of the vast private insurance bureaucracy devoted to billing, coding, denying care, and reimbursing the same procedure at different rates
  • Reducing Wasteful Spending: your money won’t be diverted towards marketing, shareholder profits, or bloated CEO salaries.
  • An Ounce of Prevention: increasing access to preventive services and early intervention for everyone to avoid costly emergency room and hospitalization expenses.
  • Bulk Purchasing: buying drugs and medical supplies at lower, negotiated prices
  • A Bigger Pool: putting all New Yorkers in the same plan decreases costs since most people are healthy most of the time, offsetting the cost of providing care
  • Providing Care Where It’s Needed: hospitals and surgical centers can be located where they are needed, ambulances can go to the closest hospital, etc.
  • Simplifying Payments: annual budgets for health care facilities, rather than itemized reimbursements

If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. How will this affect my health insurance plan?
A. You would no longer need an insurance plan. Instead of having to worry about having health insurance through your job, spouse, or buying it on your own, all New Yorkers would automatically have their healthcare covered by a statewide fund, regardless of employment or financial means.

Starting at birth, all New Yorkers would have access to healthcare the way everyone has access to the fire department, libraries, and schools. Just as there are no private fire departments, private insurers would no longer sell basic health insurance plans to New Yorkers. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Will this limit my choice of doctors or treatments?
A. Not in the least. You will have more choice of doctors under a single-payer system than you do now.
The plan would cover treatment by any doctor, not just those who are in your “network”. You would also have access to more care than any insurance company would ever allow, from primary and preventative care to vision, dental, hearing, and rehabilitation. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Is this going to raise my taxes?
A. The vast majority of New Yorkers would pay less in healthcare “taxes” than they currently pay in health insurance premiums. Also, since it’s all funded by progressive taxation, you only pay a percentage based on your income, unlike the fees charged by private insurers which have risen by over 50% in the last 5 years in NY state. Plus, there would be no co-pays or deductibles, and you would never get a medical bill again. Those who make a lot of money from investments would also pay a separate progressive tax on high-income earnings from interest, dividends, and capital gains to fund New York Health. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Will I be forced to pay for other people’s unhealthy lifestyles?
A. You already do pay for people’s unhealthy lifestyles, but you’re doing it in the most expensive way possible: through the emergency room. American hospitals are not allowed to turn away uninsured people from emergency rooms, which most agree is a good policy. But it also means that everyone with insurance is already subsidizing the uninsured, but they’re doing it in the least efficient way. The advantage of a single-payer system like New York Health is that it gives everyone access to preventative care so health problems are treated before they become emergencies. In this way, NYH creates an incentive to promote healthy lifestyles in a systematic way. Because of all this, a single-payer system is not just the fairest way to provide healthcare, it’s also the least expensive. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Why should my hard-earned money go to pay for healthcare for people who don’t work or don’t take care of their health?
A. Everyone pays their fair share into New York Health, and everyone has access to the care they need to get healthy and stay healthy. It is a myth that the uninsured are poor and unemployed. In New York state, 75% of the uninsured live above the poverty line and 61% live in households with at least one full time worker. It is also important to note that poor health habits are just as much a problem among those who work and those who have insurance as they are among those who don’t. The best way to get people to take care of their own health is to get them in the healthcare system and then give them the knowledge and tools to take care of themselves. If we shut them out of the system it will be harder for them to make those changes.

Moreover, our taxes and our health insurance already subsidize the uninsured, but they’re doing it in the least efficient way: through the emergency room. When those without coverage use expensive sources of care, such as emergency rooms, and can’t pay their bills, your costs go up by way of higher insurance premiums or taxes. All of these costs are higher in our fragmented multi-payer system. The advantage of a single-payer system like New York Health is that it gives everyone access to preventative care so health problems are treated before they become emergencies. In this way, NYH creates an incentive to promote healthy lifestyles in a systematic way. Because of all this, a single-payer system is not just the fairest way to provide healthcare, it’s also the least expensive. If you agree, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Who will run the healthcare system under New York Health?
A. Publicly accountable officials will form the core of the New York Health’s governance, unlike the current system where insurance companies control much of our care. NYH will be administered by the Commissioner of the Department of Health and overseen by a Board of Trustees, the members of which will include consumer health advocates, doctors, community health workers and a broad swathe of stakeholders. NYH will negotiate doctors’ fees and hospitals’ budgets. In contrast to private insurance companies, NYH will set its reimbursement rates and its budget in a democratic and transparent process. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Is this a government takeover of medicine?
A. No. In fact, New York Health allows medical decisions to be made freely between you and your doctor. The law does not change the ownership or management of clinics or hospitals. Healthcare providers would continue to work in the same public or private clinics that they do now. They would continue to compete for your business by providing superior care. The state government would just take on the function of reimbursing them for their work. Unlike private insurance companies, the state insurance fund does not stand to make a profit by denying you care. This means you will have greater freedom to access care and make medical decisions based on what you and your doctor decide, not on what your insurance company will cover. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Is this socialized medicine?
A. No. “Socialized medicine” is a system where all healthcare providers become government employees. Under a single-payer system like New York Health doctors and healthcare providers remain privately owned and operated. They would still need to provide quality care in order to attract and keep patients. The state government would just take on the function of reimbursing them for their work. This arrangement allows medical decisions to be made more freely between you and your doctor, since, unlike private insurers, the state insurance fund does not stand to make a profit by denying you care. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Will healthcare be “rationed” by the government?
A. Quite the opposite. Health insurers have a long history of trying to scare Americans away from universal healthcare by claiming that care would be rationed by the government. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, a single-payer system like NYH gives us more access to care than we currently have.

Indeed, the cruel irony here is that it is chiefly private health insurers — not the government — which currently ration our healthcare in extremely damaging ways. Private insurers limit our access to care in countless ways: by denying coverage or raising prices on those with pre-existing or chronic health problems; by charging co-pays and deductibles that discourage people with insurance from getting care; by limiting patients’ access to doctors and providers that are “in-network”; and by overruling and denying payment for doctors’ treatment plans.

Under a single-payer system none of these limitations would exist. You would have access to more care than any insurance company would ever allow, from primary and preventative care to vision, dental, hearing, and rehabilitation. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. How will this affect freelancers?
A. Freelancers will benefit tremendously from New York Health. Health insurance on the individual market is virtually inaccessible and the family plans available through freelancer unions cost well over one thousand dollars a month while still requiring large deductibles. Worse, freelancers have to pay those exorbitant rates no matter how much money they’ve made that month. These conditions will change little under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Under New York Health, freelancers and their families get access to the same comprehensive coverage as every other New Yorker. Moreover, like everyone else under NYH, the amount they pay is a percentage based on their income. Freelancers’ health taxes go progressively down when their income goes down. As a result, single payer will make it much easier for freelancers to break into the market and expand. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. How will this affect small businesses?
A. Like larger employers, small businesses stand to benefit from New York Health. Small businesses that currently provide health benefits will no longer have to worry about the skyrocketing cost of private health insurance. They can focus on improving their business and hiring employees without having deal with this headache. For small businesses that don’t currently provide health benefits, New York Health allows them to attract a wider pool of potential employees, since they won’t be competing with firms that do offer health benefits. Like all businesses, they also benefit to the degree that healthier workers are better and more productive workers. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. How will this affect employers?
A. A single-payer system is easy, clear, and less expensive. Employers will no longer have to negotiate health insurance plans and battle through endless paperwork and rising premiums every year as they currently do. With NYH, an employer who currently offers insurance will most likely pay less than they currently do for health premiums. Those that do not offer insurance would now be making a contribution to health of their workers. NYH would charge a graduated tax, rising with salaries; of this, the employer pays 80% and the employee pays 20%.

Once employers are freed from the burden of buying private insurance for their workers, they will have much more money to invest in their business and hire more workers. By the same logic, single payer will also make it much easier for freelancers and small businesses to break into the market and expand. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. What if I live out of state, but work and pay taxes in New York?
A. If you work and pay taxes in New York, but live outside the state, you would have an option of joining New York Health or having your taxes put towards an insurance plan in your home state. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. What if I live in New York, but work and pay taxes out of state?
A. New York residents who work in another state will pay into into the New York Health fund, either through a voluntary arrangement with their employers or on their own. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Will New York Health cover nursing homes and long-term care?
A. New York Health does not cover long-term care, but it does require that the state come up with a plan to cover long-term care within five years.

Q. Will New York Health cover birth control and abortions?
A. New York Health will cover all services currently provided by state public programs, including prescription contraceptives and abortion.

Q. What about all the insurance jobs lost?
A. Reducing our current bloated insurance bureaucracy will inevitably lead to some job loss. However, the adoption of a single-payer system is expected to lead to the creation of many new jobs in other industries throughout the state. Once employers are freed from the burden of buying private insurance for their workers, they will have much more money to invest in their business and hire more workers.

By the same logic, single payer will also make it much easier for freelancers and entrepreneurs to start and expand their businesses. Finally, with a single-payer plan, unemployed New Yorkers will no longer have to worry about how to pay for healthcare as they will be automatically covered by the statewide plan regardless of work status (even those who worked for health insurers). If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Will this lead to huge waiting lines for care?
A. American health insurance companies have a long history of trying to scare Americans away from universal healthcare by claiming that we’ll be stuck with huge waiting lines. As evidence, they usually reference Canada, which has a very popular single-payer system that covers everyone, while spending only about half as much as the U.S.

First, it’s important to clarify that, as in Canada, there would be NO waiting lists for emergency procedures under New York Health. It’s also important to bear in mind that waiting times are a part of every healthcare system. Although patients in some parts of Canada have reported longer wait times for certain non-emergency procedures, it seems to vary widely by province. In many parts of Canada, the waiting times are similar to those in the United States… assuming you have insurance. Overall, the waiting time issue in Canada is much smaller than portrayed by American health insurance companies.

New Yorkers already have to deal with waiting lines under our current system and often have to wait months in order to get an appointment for non-emergency care. Even worse, millions of New Yorkers can’t even get into the waiting line since they have no insurance. It is difficult to say exactly how waiting times for non-emergency care would change under NYH, and it will likely vary depending on your current situation. However, under NYH, no one would be excluded in this fashion. Also, since NYH would not force you to get referrals, you would also be able to make quicker appointments with specialists.

Q. Why does NYH include “care coordination”?
A. Patients stay healthier when someone checks whether they are taking their medications, watching their weight, and coming in for check-ups or follow-up appointments. That is why the bill says that each patient must choose a “care manager” to help coordinate these essential services. In most cases, your “care manager” would be your primary care provider.

This should not be confused with “managed care” which refers to the many ways that insurance companies and HMO’s currently limit your care by shifting costs on to you and by forcing you to get referrals or prior authorization before seeing specialists. By contrast, under NYH your care manager is there to help give you more access to care and to check in with you between visits. If this sounds good to you, sign the petition of support now.

Q. Once New York Health goes into effect, will private health insurance still be available in NY?
A. When New York Health is passed, private insurance can only be sold for services not covered by the NYH. Practically, this would mean that private insurance could only be sold for services excluded from the NYH – those of convenience, not of medical necessity (such as purely cosmetic surgery).

Q. What are the sources for your information?
A. Here are links to sources that back up our information:

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