Here's one senator's finest hour

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To the editor:

(re: “Universal health care depends on just one senator we all know,” Sept. 28)

Your editorial made me glad to be a regular Riverdale Press reader. Health care is our most vexing issue right now, and we desperately need the conversation and leadership The Riverdale Press is demonstrating.

Regardless of party, New Yorkers know our current health care system is killing us — and Republicans are trying to ensure that it could kill more of us.

There is a better way: the New York Health Act. It will save our lives. It will improve Medicare by expanding coverage (including dentures, hearing aids, glasses — none of which Medicare covers), and reduce the average out-of-pocket expenditures of $6,000 per senior citizen, to zero. 

It will ensure health care for all New Yorkers without these added expenses that are just insurers switching costs over to us to control access and enhance profits.

The New York Health Act financing is not complex. Instead of paying insurance companies premiums and fees that fluctuate wildly from year to year, a graduated payroll tax for those not currently on Medicare will replace our “insurance premium” on income above $25,000 — and the wealthiest will pay an additional tax on non-payroll investment income. 

As they do with Medicare, doctors will bill just once. That’s what single-payer means. All New York physicians would be “in-network.”

Unbelievable? This is what happens with a risk pool of 20 million without middleman profits. That’s what makes the New York Health Act universal. It is capitalism at its finest: Free choice and negotiated prices for pharmaceuticals, procedures, medical devices.

New York’s children, parents and families would enjoy what Medicare provides grandparents now. No one would have to choose between medical care and potential bankruptcy.

Our senator can lead the way. It will be his finest hour.

Jerrold Goodman

Jerrold Goodman

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