NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Unveils Plan To Guarantee Health Care For All New Yorkers

Hayley Miller

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HuffPost•January 8, 2019

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio unveils universal plan to guarantee health care

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced a plan to provide health care for all New Yorkers, including those who cannot qualify for health insurance such as undocumented immigrants.

The initiative, dubbed NYC Care, will guarantee physical and mental health care for all 8.6 million people living in New York, de Blasio said at a press conference Tuesday at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx.

“No one should have to live in fear,” the mayor said. “No one should go without the health care they need. Health care is a human right. In this city, we’re going to make that a reality. ... From this moment on in New York City, everyone is guaranteed the right to health care.”

The city will roll out the program borough by borough, the mayor’s office announced, starting in the Bronx this summer and covering the entire city by 2021.

It will ultimately reach as many as 600,000 uninsured New Yorkers, at a cost of $100 million per year ― money, de Blasio said, that the city is already spendingthrough the treatment of uninsured New Yorkers in emergency rooms and other settings for acute care.

Bill de Blasio @NYCMayor

Health care is a human right. Join me in the Bronx to discuss our plan to guarantee care for all New Yorkers.

pscp.tv

NYC Care will not offer free health care to all New Yorkers, but will provide a primary care doctor and access to specialty care priced on a sliding scale according to patients’ income. The program will be available to anyone who does not have an affordable insurance option, de Blasio said.

New Yorkers can already get care at clinics and hospitals when they need it, and many are eligible for one or several state and federal programs, including Medicaid, which the state expanded through the Affordable Care Act. But, de Blasio noted, many aren’t eligible for those programs and many more aren’t aware of the kind of care that is available to them.

A major focus of the effort, de Blasio emphasized, is making sure people get care before they get sick ― or, at least, before ongoing conditions explode into acute catastrophes ― by linking people with primary care doctors and clinics, so that they have “medical homes.”

De Blasio said he still believes the ultimate solution for health care is to create a single-payer or “Medicare for all” system ― that is, one government-run insurance program that would cover everybody ― either at the state or, better still, at the national level.

But with the prospects for a single-payer bill in Albany highly uncertain and no chance of single-payer at the national level while Republicans control the presidency and one house of Congress, de Blasio said, it made sense for the city to act.

“We don’t wait here in New York City,” de Blasio said. “Our people need health care right now and we can get it to them.”

New York is not the first city to undertake an ambitious effort to make sure all residents get health care. In 2006, San Francisco launched “Healthy San Francisco,” which makes medical services available throughout the city to the uninsured.

The chief architect of that program, Mitchell Katz, is now the chief executive of New York City’s hospital association and a member of the city’s board of health.

He helped to design NYC Care and, at the press conference, said the new program had a lot in common with the San Francisco initiative, although he expected the New York program to be more comprehensive and to cover many more people. “This is just a much broader scale,” Katz said.

During the press conference, de Blasio and his advisers said they were already increasing the capacity of public clinics and hospitals, to make sure people who need health care won’t have to wait for it.

The mayor also addressed critics who, by Tuesday morning, were already attacking the initiative because it will mean financing care for undocumented immigrants. 

Paying for them to get health care, de Blasio said, would ultimately save money because paying for their emergency care ends up costing more. But, he added, “They are our neighbors, they work right next to us, they help us to keep the city going, and that’s true of the whole country. I refuse the notion that these folks don’t deserve health care.”

Above is from:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/nyc-mayor-bill-blasio-unveils-163140990.html

4,000 Suspected Terrorists Stopped at the Mexico Border

Appears that we may need a fence across the Canadian border not the Mexican border

4,000 Suspected Terrorists Stopped at the Mexico Border, Says White House. Actually, It’s More Like Six, Reports U.S. Customs

Kevin Kelleher

FortuneJanuary 7, 2019

4,000 Suspected Terrorists Stopped at the Mexico Border, Says White House. Actually, It’s More Like Six, Reports U.S. Customs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered only six immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border whose names were in a federal database of known or suspected terrorists, contradicting earlier White House claims that nearly 4,000 suspected terrorists were stopped at the country’s southern border.

The disclosure, made by Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen Monday and first reported by NBC News, concerned only the first half of 2018. Of 41 people stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border by the CBP in that period, 35 were U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, with the other six classified as non-residents.

By contrast, the CBP encountered 91 people at the U.S.-Canada border whose names were on the federal list, with 41 of them non-U.S. citizens or residents, NBC said.

On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, said that CBP stopped nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists from crossing the southern border in 2018. Fact-checks of Sanders’ statement showed that the 4,000 figure applied to 2017, not 2018, and included stops made by DHS officials around the globe, with the vast majority of them occurring at airports.

Sanders appeared on Fox News Sunday and mentioned again the 4,000 known or suspected terrorists figure. When Fox News host Chris Wallace challenged her assertion and mentioned that most of the stops happened at airports, Sanders acknowledged that “they’re coming in a number of ways.”

Wallace then countered, “The State Department says there hasn’t been any terrorists that they’ve found coming across the southern border with Mexico.”

Californians may soon have medical care for all

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes healthcare mandate, Medi-Cal expansion to more immigrants without legal status

By MELODY GUTIERREZ

JAN 07, 2019 | 6:05 PM

| SACRAMENTO

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes healthcare mandate

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced sweeping proposals to tackle the state’s healthcare needs shortly after taking office on Monday, outlining a dramatic Medi-Cal expansion that would cover young immigrant adults who are in the U.S. illegally, require that all consumers in the state carry health insurance and increase subsidies for middle-class families to help those who need it.

The Day 1 announcement was as much a rebuke to the Trump administration as it was an attempt by Newsom to make good on his campaign promise to fix a fragmented healthcare system that leaves many priced out or underinsured. The governor also signed executive orders to consolidate the state’s prescription drug purchases into a state-run program and to create a new surgeon general position to look at health disparities before they manifest, as Newsom put it.

“Every person should have access to quality, affordable healthcare,” Newsom said earlier Monday in his inaugural address. “Far-away judges and politicians may try to turn back our progress. But we will never waver in our pursuit of guaranteed healthcare for all Californians.”

Newsom campaigned on a universal healthcare platform and has said the issue would be among his top priorities. His announcement on Monday stopped short of the single-payer system demanded by activists that would cover all residents’ healthcare costs, but was characterized as the first step down that path.

The new governor sent a letter to Congress and the White House asking for changes to federal laws so that the state can have the regulatory freedom to overhaul California’s healthcare system and move toward single payer.

“We are very pleased that this is a governor who has put forward the vision of universal healthcare and also seeks to make tangible Year 1 steps to increase access and improve care,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy group. “These are key steps toward universal guaranteed coverage.”

Some of the new healthcare proposals will be included in Newsom’s state budget that will be released Thursday and vetted in the coming months by the Legislature, when the details and costs of the plan will be reviewed.

“These complex proposals require a lot of scrutiny to fully understand the consequences — both good and bad,” said Assemblyman Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley), the vice chairman of the Assembly Health Committee. “We agree on the goals of reduced costs, increased competition and better quality healthcare for all Californians. Government has an important role to play in holding the healthcare industry accountable; however it must be balanced and not overreach or hinder innovation.”

Gavin Newsom takes the oath of office, administered by California State Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, and is sworn in as the 40th governor of California in front of the Capitol in Sacramento. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

California would be the first state to cover immigrants without legal status who are younger than 26 through Medi-Cal, the state’s health program for people with low incomes. California already covers undocumented children until they turn 19, with Newsom’s plan increasing the age cut-off to mirror that of the Affordable Care Act, which allows young adults to stay on a parent’s health insurance plan until turning 26.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Newsom said in a Facebook Live feed announcing the proposal. “It’s the fiscally conservative thing to do. It’s the moral thing to do … When we talk about universal healthcare, it means everybody. When everybody pulls together, it means lower costs to each and every one of you.”

A legislative proposal last year pegged the cost of extending Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants under 26 at $250 million a year. That cost would fall solely to California, despite the mix of federal and state money that typically comprises Medi-Cal funding because the Affordable Care Act prohibits the use of federal dollars for covering immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

Cynthia Buiza, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, called the proposal a “historic commitment that takes us one step closer to upholding the vital principle that no human being should suffer or die from a treatable condition, no matter what they look like or where they were born.”

“All youth deserve reliable access to healthcare, which will allow them to focus on living happy and productive lives,” said Brianna Lierman of the Local Health Plans of California, a trade association representing not-for-profit health plans.

Newsom’s proposal would also create an individual mandate in California to thwart predicted drops in the state’s health insurance market after the federal government removed financial penalties for uninsured consumers beginning this year. The requirement that consumers have health insurance or face financial penalties propped up the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and its elimination is expected to drive up premiums.

Without the individual mandate, all consumers will experience rate increases this year, said officials for Covered California, the state's official health insurance marketplace. Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said Newsom’s proposal would bring stability to the market and is a critical step toward reaching universal healthcare.

“At a time of ongoing uncertainty from Washington, the governor is not only embracing policies that will lower the cost of coverage for millions in the individual market, he is also offering increased help to those who are struggling with rising costs,” Lee said in a statement Monday.

Newsom’s plan to create a individual mandate for Californians could be a heavy lift, even in the Democrat-dominated state Legislature, where such a requirement could require a two-thirds vote.

Representatives for the governor’s office said requiring people to carry health insurance is central to another proposal to increase financial subsidies for middle-income families. Newsom’s budget will propose that the income cap be raised so that individuals earning up to $72,840 and families of four earning up to $150,600 could qualify for lower premiums.

“Gov. Newsom is backing up his words with action, helping make healthcare affordable and available to all Californians,” said David Aizuss, president of the California Medical Association.

While those proposals have to withstand legislative scrutiny, Newsom took his pen on Monday to an executive order that does not.

Newsom signed an order to create a surgeon general oversight position in the state and to consolidate pharmaceutical purchases in hopes of lowering drug costs for the state and consumers. Under the current system, Medi-Cal and state agencies separately negotiate prescription drug prices. Under the order, Newsom’s office said the state would become the largest single purchaser of prescription drugs.

The governor’s order would allow small businesses or individuals to join the state-run collective at the same bulk purchasing price points.

Consolidating prescription drug purchasing in the state has been proposed in the Legislature over the past several years, but has fizzled in part due to lobbying by powerful drug interests and the complexity of consolidating the current system.

“We are in essence taking all of these disparate pieces of state government that are currently negotiating for drug prices and bringing all them together in a scope and scale that is unlike any other in the United States of America,” Newsom said.

Above is from:  https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-healthcare-proposal-20190107-story.html