Emily Hausman running for 81st AD female leader

Another person has announced their campaign for the 81st Assembly District. Emily Hausman, director of the Infant and Toddler Center at SAR Academy and a childhood educator and advocate, is running for female district leader.

“I am running because the youngest community members need an advocate in our Democratic Party, and our party must recognize the urgency of fighting for our Democratic values in order to ensure that their future is bright,” Hausman stated in a press release.

“As an educational leader who has adapted to the needs of our community at a moment’s notice, all while keeping the long term vision and values at the forefront of my planning, I am ready to bring my voice to the broader Bronx community,” she added.

Hausman described how as an early childhood administrator she helps to create spaces the youngest community members can thrive in and decrease challenges to families in the workplace.

During the beginning of Covid, Hausman, then director of early childhood education at The Riverdale Y, ran an in-person emergency school to fulfill the needs of front line workers’ children. The Press previously reported there were more than 40 children being housed, fed and educated there.

Rivera’s ‘debt
reporting’ act signed

A bill prohibiting medical debt from being collected by a consumer report agency was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Dec. 13. State Sen. Gustavo Rivera’s “Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act” prohibits medical debt being included in a consumer report. Also, it will prevent medical service providers from reporting medical debt directly or indirectly to a consumer reporting agency.

“I am so grateful to Gov. Hochul and our coalition for standing together to relieve New Yorkers from the burden of medical debt’s impact on credit reports,” Rivera said in a press release.

“The Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act will stop medical debt from damaging patients’ financial stability and mitigate the fear of seeking medical care due to cost in our most vulnerable communities.”

This bill is the third from Rivera’s legislative package to end medical debt to become law. Eradicating medical debt is a major part of Rivera’s fight to transform a for-profit healthcare system into a system that puts patients first, his release reads.

Rivera is also a sponsor of two other medical debt-related bills, one that is currently in the Senate committee rules committee and another that is in the Assembly committee.

The first, Medical Debt Relief Act, establishes a three-year pilot medical debt relief program for eligible residents to acquire and cancel medical debt directly from state health care providers. The second would standardize hospitals’ financial assistance policies to make sure low and moderate income and uninsured patients can access free or discounted care.