Legislative Gazette
1/9/12
Amanda Verrette
Members of the Health Care for All New York coalition released two new documents they hope will help push legislation to create a statewide health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
And while members of the coalition were pleased to hear the governor call for a health insurance exchange in his State of the State speech last week, the politically charged issue still faces an uphill battle in the Legislature.
“We’re a coalition of 120 organizations across the state dedicated to the singular goal of affordable, high quality, comprehensive health coverage for all New Yorker’s,” said Legislative Campaign Director of the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey, Sherry Tomasky, addressing citizens and members of the press in Albany last Thursday.
The first document, The Affordable Care Act and New Yorkers: A Gift That Keeps On Giving, a report by Public Policy and the Education Fund of New York, highlights the benefits New Yorkers have enjoyed since the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act.
“Our report documents that the Affordable Care Act is already helping millions of New Yorkers,” said Bob Cohen, policy director of the Public Policy and Education Fund.
The second document, Health Reform Works: How the Affordable Care Act is Already Making a Difference for New Yorkers, by the Community Service Society of New York, narrates the personal stories of people across the state who have benefitted from the health care reform law.
Although the group documents the success of the initial Affordable Care Act, they stressed that they don’t want federal intervention for a universal exchange that does not meet the specific needs of New Yorkers.
“We want, and can run, an exchange on our own,” said Tomasky.
Through the New York exchange, also known as the health care market place, 1,040,000 New Yorkers would be eligible to purchase health insurance, of which 700,000 will be eligible for subsidies to buy coverage, according to the group.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services must determine by Jan. 1, 2013 whether a state will have an exchange that is operational by Jan. 1, 2014. If a state does not meet that goal, a federal exchange will be put in place.
“We are 360 days away from when New York state must prove to the federal government that we have a viable exchange in New York and that New York can operate on its own,” said Tomasky. She further commented that, in Wednesday’s State of the State Address, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had encouraging words about the prioritization of the health insurance exchange.
“When the exchange is implemented, more than one million New Yorkers will gain health coverage and individuals who currently buy their coverage directly will see their cost drop by 66 percent,” according to the text version of Cuomo’s speech. “We must enact the legislation necessary to establish the Health Insurance Exchange now,” he added.
But Tomasky stressed that this is still unfinished business. “This is not a brand new initiative, and while we are grateful to see that this is put on the list of things that the administration intends to do, this was unfinished from 2011.”
In the final days of 2011, a negotiated bill failed to pass the Senate, putting the program many months behind schedule.
“We are already behind the eight ball as we approached 2012, and our work to establish the exchange is of great importance and we are under a very urgent timeline to meet the deadlines that New York has to meet in order to have a viable insurance exchange up and running,” said Tomasky.
