Riverdale Lawmakers, Advocates Renew Push for New York Health Act as Costs Rise

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera reintroduced the New York Health Act this year, a bill that aims to provide universal health care to residents by cutting out insurance companies. 

The lawmaker told The Press this year could be different. 

According to the Empire Center for Public Policy, companies and their workers paid about $9,589 for single coverage last year. This was the highest in the United States and 13 percent — or $1,100 — above the national average. 

“We have been fed and taught a canard — a lie — that the way to secure good health care is to secure a good insurance product,” Rivera said. “You can’t go broke because you get sick.”

The 2025 to 2026 legislative session marks the senator’s fourth time proposing the act, which has previously been shot down due to push back from government worker unions and over potential costs. 

But, with New York’s worsening affordability crisis, mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and upcoming federal cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, it might increase urgency to push the bill forward.

“I think it is a moment for us to talk very bluntly about what we need to do, and that is to boldly propose solutions that will actually address the concerns of people, not go around the edges,” Rivera said. 

The bill was referred to the health committee early this year and has had no changes to its status since. The Senate will reconvene next January.  

In years prior, it was passed by the Assembly a couple of times but never made it out of committee in the Senate. 

Under the New York Health Act, care would be provided directly from a healthcare provider to the patient — that means no premiums, deductibles, copays or any other costs associated with insurance companies. 

New York Health would cover any charges. 

Taxes must be raised to fund the new system. This would be a progressive tax that increases based on income, and employers would be required to pay at least 80% of the payroll tax.

State Sen. Robert Jackson — who represents Marble Hill, Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Heights — is a co-sponsor of the bill. He told The Press the urgency of health care inequities is intense, and it sets the upcoming legislative session apart.

“We already pay for a broken system — we just do it through debt, suffering and bureaucracy. The New York Health Act takes those same dollars and puts them where they belong: into care, not profit.” 

Jackson cited local families who face higher rates of chronic illness, asthma and dependency on the emergency room since local clinics are underfunded. Older adults on fixed incomes struggle with costs Medicare doesn’t cover. Immigrant families often don’t have access to insurance through their employer.

“Too many residents still fall through the cracks of a system that profits from exclusion,” he added. 

Local organizations such as the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, or NWBCCC, and Northwest Bronx Indivisible, or NWBI,  have backed the bill for years, along with hundreds of other groups across the state, according to the Campaign for New York Health. 

NWBCCC Vice President Roberta Todd said the well-being of the Bronx — which is consistently ranked as the least healthy county in the state — is an injustice. The more she looked into it, the stronger she felt that insurance companies put profit above health. 

“You shouldn’t be making money off of health care,” she said. 

Helen Krim, health chair of NWBI, had a similar standpoint. Her group works to educate the public, who she says knows the system is broken but isn’t aware the New York Health Act exists. 

“Health care is a human right and a public good,” Krim said. “Germs don’t distinguish between the rich and the poor … It’s a matter of justice and a matter of equity.”