Over 100 Living Wage Activists Rally For County Health Care Resolution at Courthouse

Over 100 people rallied in front of the Tompkins County Courthouse Tuesday in support of a Resolution spearheaded by Tompkins County Legislator, Nathan Shinagawa, that urged strong action statewide to address the growing health care insurance crisis.

The Resolution in support of the state-wide Fair Share Health Care plan and a single-payer/universal health care system passed by a 12-2 vote. To view a News 10 Now report on the rally and Resolution, click here.

Background:
Fair Share Health Care is a new plan that requires that employers with more than 100 employees pay at least $3/hour for each worker to cover their health care costs. “Fair Share Health Care helps the people that fall between the cracks,” said Legislator Shinagawa, “These are people who are employed and work hard, but earn too much to qualify for government assistance and also have employers that either don’t provide health benefits or have been increasing the costs of premiums beyond affordability for their workers. Most often, the health costs of the uninsured are shifted to local and state governments causing incredible financial strain to taxpayers at the benefit of large businesses.”

The pending New York State Fair Share bill highlights the fact that “nearly 80 percent of New York’s uninsured are working people and their dependents,” while “employees of large companies are one of the fastest growing groups of New York’s uninsured and account for much of the expanded enrollment in New York’s public health care programs, as fewer large employers offer affordable health care for their employees.” Co-sponsored by local Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, the pending legislation aims to address this issue and is awaiting action by the State Assembly and Senate. In Albany, a recent Assembly hearing on Fair Share Health Care attracted a crowd of more than 900 people. A deadline of June 22nd has been set for the state legislatures to act on the legislation.

The proposed Tompkins County endorsement resolution also supports, in addition to Fair Share Health Care, a statewide single-payer system and a commission to study how such a system can be implemented. The resolution sees Fair Share Health Care as, “a partial, short-term solution to the health care crisis, as a beginning to a better, and still prospective, turn-around to a nationwide, single-payer health care system.”

“The principle that employers, large employers, that are for the most part very profitable, ought to be providing a certain amount toward the healthcare for their employees,” said Carl Feuer of the Living Wage Coalition.

TEXT OF RESOLUTION

RESOLUTION NO. 95 – SUPPORT OF NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY BILLS A6575, A6576, 10583, AND SENATE BILLS S3459 AND S7090 – WHICH ADDRESS THE GROWING HEALTH INSURANCE CRISIS IN NEW YORK STATE

MOVED by Mr. Shinagawa, seconded by Ms. Robertson.

WHEREAS, access to health care continues to be a major concern for New Yorkers, and

WHEREAS, today nearly 3 million state residents have no health insurance, and often from necessity incur high individual debt and/or face financial ruin, and

WHEREAS, New York State is the 5th wealthiest state, but has the 2nd highest rate of uninsured people, and

WHEREAS, New York State in recent years had led the nation in expanding public programs such as Medicaid and designing programs such as Family Health Plus and Child Health plus, spending $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars through Medicaid and Family Health Plus to cover the insurance of those who are already employed, but do not receive coverage through their employers, nevertheless there has been little net reduction in the number of uninsured, largely because employers have been decreasing coverage, and

WHEREAS, many employers, including many small businesses, are responsible and do provide health care to their employees but face competitive disadvantages from employers who shift the responsibility of rising health care costs onto their employees and taxpayers, and

WHEREAS, there is no reason for health care to be tied to employment; this linkage is an artifact of post-World War II economics when American employers chose to offer health benefits in place of salary increases, and

WHEREAS, New York State can do better in fulfilling its constitutional promise of caring for all residents, and

WHEREAS, there are three major health-care bills before the New York State Legislature:

A. 6576 (S. 3459) -the New York Health Plan, which would establish a single-payer health-care program in New York State that would cover all residents. This bill first passed the Assembly in 1992. It would cover all necessary medical care including prescription drugs; hospital, surgical, outpatient services; primary and preventive care; emergency services; dental and mental health; physical therapy; vision care; and long-term care, and

A. 6575 (no Senate companion yet) -that would establish a Legislative Commission on health-care reform with two co-chairs, one heading a study of Expanding Traditional Health Care and one studying Publicly Financed Health Care, and

RESOLUTION NO. 95 – SUPPORT OF NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY BILLS A6575, A6576, 10583, AND SENATE BILLS S3459 AND S7090 – WHICH ADDRESS THE GROWING HEALTH INSURANCE CRISIS IN NEW YORK STATE

1. 10583 (S. 7090) -Fair-Share Health Care, which would require all employers of more than 100 employees — excluding manufacturing and farm jobs, and those employed in managerial, administrative, and professional positions — to pay an assessment to New York State (based on number of hours worked annually; initially at $3/hour), with that assessment reduced by what the employer already pays for health coverage for employees and family members. This bill has the potential in New York to provide 400,000 currently uninsured workers with employer-sponsored health insurance; shift approximately 200,000 workers currently enrolled in Medicaid and Family Health Plus to employer-sponsored health insurance; and save state and local governments approximately $465 million in reduced spending on uncompensated care for the uninsured, and

WHEREAS, the Tompkins County Legislature believes that both controlling health care costs and ensuring health care for all residents is of paramount importance, and

WHEREAS, this Legislature further believes that the best approach for New York State is to move directly from the current multiple-payer approach, with its high costs of administration and marketing, to a statewide single-payer system, which is the approach used in other industrialized democracies and which results in residents having comparatively lower costs and greater satisfaction than we do, and

WHEREAS, the next-best approach would be the Study Commission, where the two contrasting approaches would get an up-to-date analysis and be open to easy comparison, and

WHEREAS, although the “Fair Share” helps provide New York with additional revenue to expand health coverage, it does so by continuing to tie health care to employment and thus may help prop up the current flawed system, but can be seen as a partial, short-term solution to the health insurance crisis, and as a first step toward better, and still prospective, nationwide, single-payer health care system, now therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the Tompkins County Legislature urges passage of A.6576 and S.3459, New York Health, the approach that ensures health-care coverage for all New Yorkers,

RESOLVED, further, That the Tompkins County Legislature, recognizing that in any event the urgency of the current health care situation requires that measures be taken to address the growing crisis, also supports the Study Commission and the “Fair Share Health Care” plan.

SEQR ACTION: TYPE II-20

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RESOLUTION NO. 95 – SUPPORT OF NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY BILLS A6575, A6576, 10583, AND SENATE BILLS S3459 AND S7090 – WHICH ADDRESS THE GROWING HEALTH INSURANCE CRISIS IN NEW YORK STATE

cc: Administration – via Network

Finance Department

Public Works

Governor G. Pataki

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

Senator J. Seward

Senator M. Nozzolio

Senator G. Winner

Assemblywoman B. Lifton

New York State Association of Counties

STATE OF NEW YORK )

) ss:

COUNTY OF TOMPKINS )

I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct transcript of a resolution adopted by the Tompkins County Legislature on the 20th day of June, 2006

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and

affixed the seal of the said Legislature at Ithaca, New York,

this 21st day of June, 2006.

, Clerk

Tompkins County Legislature