LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Health care, right from the source

Posted

To the editor:

At a time when deficits in the newly approved U.S. Tax Act have already initiated cuts in Medicare to pay for its extravagance to the rich, the need for local initiatives to address health care is becoming more and more urgent.

Our state has legislation already written and already vetted by experts to give us back what the federal government is taking away. The bill is the New York Health Act — universal health care, paid for by a single payer, and it will cost 98 percent of New York residents less than they pay now.

This bill offers coverage better than commercial insurance, and better than Medicare, including all medically necessary services from doctors and hospitals, and covers prevention, mental health, reproduction, dental, vision, hearing and prescription drugs and supplies. With all providers inside network, patients will regain free choice of doctors, and doctors will regain autonomy over patient care, and significantly more time to spend with patients.

The act has passed the Assembly three times, and lacks only one vote to pass in the senate.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, the author of the New York Health Act, is coming to Riverdale at the invitation of the Benjamin Franklin Reform Democratic Club, and will present details of the bill — what it offers and how we will pay for it — at Tibbett Towers on Jan. 10 at 7 p.m.

This is an opportunity Riverdalians should not let pass.

As author, Assemblyman Gottfried is the person most qualified to explain everything about how the bill will work. 

The meeting is open to all, and this is our opportunity to ask any questions we might have. I urge everyone to come.

Helen Krim

Correction: The New York Health Act as proposed by the state legislature would cost 98 percent of New Yorkers less than what they are paying now, according to Helen Krim. A production error in her letter to the editor published Jan. 11 made that point unclear.

Helen Krim

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