There’s only left in this year’s New York State legislative session, which is scheduled to conclude on Thurs. June 10th. Several health care bills are poised for passage with a slight push, and others need more heft to move them forward toward the goal line. Here’s a run-down of these bills and where things stand:
— Patient Medical Debt Protection Act (S.2521a/A.3479a, Rivera/Gottfried) is an omnibus bill that strengthens consumer rights and protections in a number of ways when patients incur large medical bills that they can’t pay. The bill as a whole is expected to carry over into next year, but one of its provisions limits interest rates health care providers can charge patients and is very close to enactment (S.3057a/A.1538a, Rivera/Gottfried.)
At present, providers can charge up to the full commercial rate (currently around 9%.) This bill would lower the amount to either 3% or the current U.S. Treasury rate (now around 1%), whichever is lower. During the COVID-19 pandemic, more patients have incurred medical debt, and many of them are unemployed with minimal income and often no health insurance, and this bill would keep the amount they owe from growing even larger.
This interest rate bill has passed through all relevant committees in both the Senate and Assembly, and so is poised in both chambers for floor debate and vote.
— Health Equity Assessment Act (S.1451a/A.191a, Rivera/Gottfried) would require all hospitals that seek to expand, merge, modify, downsize, or close via the State’s “Certificate of Need” process to provide an independent assessment of the health equity impacts of their plans upon the communities they serve.
Over the last 20 years, scores of hospitals across the State have closed, many in low-income communities of color and immigrant communities. The current COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the results of this situation wherein the remaining hospitals in those communities were overwhelmed, and many patients were not able to get the care they needed and some died.
This bill has passed through the Senate, and has passed through all necessary committees in the Assembly so it is ready for floor debate and vote.
— Charity Care reform (S.5954/A.6883, Rivera/Gottfried) would re-apportion how funds from the State’s indigent care pool are distributed to hospitals so that they are directed to “enhanced safety net” hospitals that serve large numbers of uninsured and Medicaid patients.
A large portion of these funds come from the federal government’s “Disproportionate Share Hospital” (DSH) program. Currently, New York is ranked #50 in how these monies are supposed to be distributed, and continue to send significant amounts to large, well-resourced hospital networks that often don’t serve very many uninsured and Medicaid patients.
In the Assembly, this bill has passed out of the Health Committee and is now before the Ways and Means Committee. In the Senate, it remains before the Health Committee. At this point, in order for it to move to the floor for debate and vote in either chamber, the Rules Committee would have to intercede.
— New York Health Act (S.5475/A.6058, Rivera/Gottfried) would create a fully-public universal health care program covering all New York residents. This bill has been introduced for many years, and this year for the first time ever, it has a majority of co-sponsors in both the Senate and Assembly.
The COVID-19 pandemic has absolutely shown us in many ways that we as a nation or state must move toward a universal health care program as soon as possible. Estimates are that many lives were unnecessarily lost because we don’t have one.
In the Assembly, this bill has passed out of the Health Committee and is now before the Ways and Means Committee. In the Senate, it remains before the Health Committee. At this point, in order for it to move to the floor for debate and vote in either chamber, the Rules Committee would have to intercede.
You can join in a Statewide Mobilization in Albany taking place next Monday, June 7th, organized by our colleagues at the Campaign for New York Health. Car pools are being organized from NYC. You can find all the details here.
