April 26 — Remarks of Mark Hannay, Director, Metro New York Health Care for All, at a rally ouside Harlem Hospital Center in upper Manhattan.

We’re all excited to be here with everyone today outside Harlem Hospital, one of our city’s most important health care facilities and a key pillar of the Harlem community.

We are all joining forces here today for 7 major reasons:

 

• Reason #1:  We’re here today to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, and all the advancements made under the law that have benefited millions of New Yorkers.   Nearly 400,000 New Yorkers have gained coverage through the state’s “New York State of Health” marketplace, and 60% of them have qualified for premium subsidies to help them purchase their coverage.  Over 700,000 New Yorkers have gained coverage under our state’s new, low-cost “Essential Plan” for low-income people who don’t qualify for Medicaid.  Nearly 350,000 children in New York now have coverage under our state’s Child Health Plus program.  Over 2.5 million New Yorkers have gained coverage under Medicaid. In total, nearly 6.5 million New Yorkers now benefit from Medicaid, fully one-third of our state’s population.  In total, New York’s uninsurance rate is now less than 5%, and less than 2% for children.  In New York State, scores of new community health centers opened because of the ACA, serving over 700,000 new patients. About 750 centers now provide care to nearly 2.25 million New Yorkers.  In sum… the ACA in New York is a smashing success because our political leaders have implemented it robustly, and taken full advantage of all its provisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Reason #2:  We’re here today to call out President Trump and his congressional partners for all they are STILL trying to do to take health care away from millions of New Yorkers and other U.S. residents.  Last year they did it openly, this year they’re doing it sneakily.  President Trump in particular is doing everything he can to sabotage the ACA by destabilizing our insurance markets, cutting back on the law’s Essential Health Benefits, undermining vital consumer protections for those with pre-existing health conditions, and negating important civil rights guarantees under the law.  He’s also attacking Medicaid by proposing new work requirements, drug testing, and the like.

 

• Reason #3:  We’re here today to recommit ourselves to continuing to work together to take action to stop Trump and Congress from attacking and undermining Medicaid, Medicare, the ACA, reproductive health care, and the whole range of federal health care and social programs that millions of New Yorkers rely on.  They’re taking these steps in order to pay for the huge tax cut bill they passed last December that increased the federal budget deficit by $1.5 trillion, all to benefit large corporations and the super-rich.  Last year, everyday people came together across New York and the U.S. to fight back against a full-out legislative assault on the ACA, Medicaid, and family planning services.  Beyond our wildest expectations, we succeeded in stopping Trump and Congress.  We want to thank everyone here today who took an action then to contribute to our victory.  You – We – made it happen.  Now we have to do it again.

 

• Reason #4:  We’re here today to support our health care safety net, particularly our city’s public hospitals.  They have long served all New Yorkers regardless of their immigration status, ability to pay, or lack of insurance, and provided them excellent care.  Harlem Hospital is one of the crown jewels of the system.  As more people may lose coverage because of what Trump and Congress are doing to undermine our nation’s health care programs, places like Harlem Hospital, is where they will turn for care.  We call on our city and state officials to fully-fund our public hospital system to that its able to handle the additional burdens.

 

• Reason #5:  We’re here today to call on our political leaders, both at the national and state level, to move toward a truly universal health care program covering everyone, including all immigrants.  Despite the progress made under the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. still remains the ONLY industrialized democracy without a national, universal health care program.  Rather than trying to take away our health care, President Trump and Congress should be working to build on Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, and CHIP to assure that health care finally become a human right across for all.  The ACA also allows and can support states like New York to move ahead on our own to create a universal health care program.

 

• Reason #6:  We’re here today to call on all our politicians, public health leaders, and health care institutions and professionals to launch an aggressive effort to address health disparities across our city, state, and nation.  We need to develop and advance policies that promote health equity for all New Yorkers, regardless of socio-economic class, race, ethnicity, age, spoken language, gender and gender expression or identity, disability or health status, sexual orientation, and geographic location.

 

• And finally, Reason #7:   We’re here today to commit ourselves to reach out to the public to inform them about what Trump and his allies are still trying to do to health care and social programs that all of us everyday people rely on, and what they can do working together to stop it.  We’re also going to help our fellow New Yorkers understand how incredibly important it is for people to register to vote and turn out to vote this fall, so that starting next year, we have political leaders who are committed to protecting, improving, and expanding all of our health care and social programs, instead of trying to destroy them.