Universal health care now, please

To the editor:

This is an open letter to Gov. Cuomo. We were encouraged by your State of the State address, with your rallying cry that New Yorkers can make the impossible possible through focused determination.

“Time and again, we have heard the voices of doubt and defeat.” “We can’t, only if we believe we can’t.”

This gives us great hope for passing the New York Health Act. Now that we have a Democratic federal government, we should be able to get the Medicaid waiver needed to make the program financially viable, which it can be, according to sources like the 2019 Rand Corp., study.

During COVID-19, we are seeing amplified dangers of “two Americas” in our health care system, the many New Yorkers who cannot afford to access health care, and the many who lost their access to health care when they lost their jobs.

New York state can be a model for universal health care for the rest of the nation, just as we have been with gun safety and marriage equality — and as we plan to be with our environmental policies.

Gov. Cuomo, please help us make this the year that New York sets the model for universal health care for the country. Help us to make the New York Health Act a reality!

Judy Fletcher
Kami Seligman

The authors are health care committee co-chairs for NYCD16-Indivisible.

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