Just a mere few weeks ago, we all thought that we here in the US were starting to climb out of 16+ months of pandemic lockdown. Then the new Delta variant arrived, and things stalled (if not fell backward.)  One month later, we are all now re-pondering if and when and how to fully venture forth again out into the world.

The lesson?

None of us is safe anywhere unless all of us are safe everywhere around the world. This pandemic isn’t going to end until we vaccinate everyone everywhere as quickly as possible.

However, Big Pharma and its political shills are standing in the way as the industry aims to maintain their hegemony over responding to and profiteering from the pandemic. Unless their stranglehold over COVID-19 treatments and vaccines can be broken, we face months and years of continued struggle to overcome the worst global public health crisis in over a century.

Last spring, the Biden administration (surprisingly) announced US support for international efforts to waive international property rights so that vaccines and treatments can be quickly mass produced and used all over the world. Everyone who believes in health justice cheered. However, since then they have done little or nothing to make the waivers actually happen quickly. Instead, they are allowing the European Union (at the behest of Germany) to block them on behalf of Big Pharma. Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to rage in many countries, and new viral variants emerge that threaten all of us, whether we are vaccinated or not.

What can be done?

The forces involved in the People’s Vaccine Alliance and the Free the Vaccine movement have joined together to launch a mass online petition campaign here in the US, It calls on President Biden and the White House COVID-19 Task Force to assert US leadership internationally to get the waivers done NOW so that the global pandemic can be ended as soon as possible, and we can no longer be at serious risk for new deadly viral variants.

YOU can sign the “Suspend Pharma Monopolies Now!” petition here.

YOU can let others know about it and urge they do so too.

President Biden recently announced that he hosting a “Global COVID-19 Summit” next month, so tens of thousands of signatures are needed right away before then. We appreciate all that you can do to make that happen!

Since last spring, we’ve been proud to help lead the Free the Vaccine movement here in New York and nationally. We have been working with various local partners to hold several street actions targeting our hometown Big Pharma nemesis Pfizer for its role in leading the industry’s opposition to the waiver process. We’re now all working on our next event to take place sometime in mid-September in conjunction with the annual United Nations General Assembly and President Biden’s Summit.

It’s that time of year again: Summer Celebration Season!

July 26 is the 31^st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark law securing the rights of people living with disabilities. July 30 is the 56^th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, two bedrock national health care programs that we all seek to build on in the fight for health care for all. August 14 is the 86^th anniversary of Social Security, a fundamental social insurance program for all working people that has grown to be a broad social safety net for tens of millions across the U.S. and across New York.

We’re going to celebrate all of these beloved laws and programs on Friday morning July 30th, and we invite everyone to join us for “Keep Them Strong, Make Them Better, and Pass Them Along!”, a special online forum from 10 to 11 a.m. You can register here.

We’re partnering with Citizen Action of NY, Health Foundation of Western and Central NY, Medicaid Matters NY, NYS Alliance for Retired Americans, NY Association for Independent Living, and NY Statewide Senior Action Council, and we’ve invited both our U.S. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and U.S. Reps. from across New York State to join us for our celebration and advocacy briefing. (Bring your own cupcake or breakfast pastry!)

We’ll also be letting people know what’s on the table in Congress with regard to these programs and laws as they craft a federal budget over this summer and early fall.  It’s very possible that many good steps forward can be taken, but it won’t happen without us everyday people pushing for them. We’ll be letting everyone know what they can and need to do to support good proposals from President Biden and congressional leaders. Success will move forward our shared goal of universal health care. Don’t forget to register here!

“No One is Safe Until All of Us are Safe.”

THAT is one of the main lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic that we’ve all been living through for nearly 16 months now, be it here in NYC or around the globe.

Here in NYC, we are starting to climb out of pandemic lockdown as more people get vaccinated. In other parts of the world, the pandemic still rages, particularly in low-income/developing countries, many of them in the Global South, Millions of people are sickened, require intensive care hospitalization, are suffering long-term complications, and many are dying, often literally in the streets. And all of that is mostly preventable if only diagnostic tests, treatments, and vaccinations were widely available …but they are not (yet.)

This situation is a moral and ethical crisis that cries out for rich western nations to act quickly.  It also puts all of us here back home at risk for viral variants that could evade the protections of current vaccines. That prospect could force us back into a public health lockdown, tank our economy again, and lead to new surges in illness and death. We can’t let that happen.

Who’s the problem:

This dystopian scenario is completely preventable, but one thing stands in the way: the profiteering of #BigPharma vaccine makers and their political shills.

These powerful forces are currently aggressively fighting against a proposal from over 100 nations, led by India and South Africa, asking the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive the international intellectual property rules that underly COVID-19 vaccines, tests, treatments, and medical equipment. Under such a waiver, all of these products could be mass produced locally as generics, and national populations could be quickly treated and vaccinated, thereby ending the pandemic.

The drug industry’s pushback is being led by our hometown company Pfizer, the world’s largest and most profitable drug company and largest COVID-19 vaccine maker. (In the first quarter of this year, the company took in over $3 billion in revenue from vaccine sales alone.) Pfizer and its Big Pharma pals are spreading outright lies and disinformation about the proposed WTO waiver, and lining up influential countries to stop it from going forward.

The good news is that the Biden administration has come out in support of the waiver request which has given a major boost to its prospects. In addition, the WTO and other international entities have signaled that they are not in favor of allowing the status quo to continue, and intend to pursue negotiations for an agreement to make vaccines widely available worldwide. That said, the devil is always in the details.

Nothing concrete has come to fruition yet, and the industry still has the upper hand. So far, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the European Union are standing with Big Pharma and against the waiver negotiation process.

What Can be Done:

Last fall, activist forces here in the US and around the globe came together to form the “Free the Vaccine” campaign, as a companion to the People’s Vaccine movement. Earlier this spring, their campaign launched with simultaneous actions in cities across the US and around the globe. Its goal is to call attention to the stark vaccine disparities between “first world” countries that are starting to stem the pandemic and the rest of the word that is being left behind while Big Pharma laughs all the way to Wall Street. 

Here in NYC, we are proud to be helping to lead this effort along with ACT UP New York, Center for Popular Democracy, Health GAP, New York Trade Justice Coalition, NYC DSA, People’s Action, Right to Health Action, Rise and Resist, and others.

Our main target has been drugmaker Pfizer, where we’ve held 3 events over the course of this spring outside their World Headquarters located in midtown Manhattan, a mere one block from the United Nations campus:

• A “People’s Speak-Out” outside on the sidewalk in early March where everyday New Yorkers shared their own personal stories and perspectives about vaccine equity here in our city and around the globe, as part of an international day of action in communities across the US and world.
• An out-front-on-the-sidewalk “People’s Shareholder Meeting” in late April that coincided with the company’s official one.  It kicked off a national fortnight of actions across the US that lead up to the most recent meeting of the WTO in early May. These actions helped push the Biden administration to take the stance that it has, and we’re glad to have played our part in bringing that about.
• A “March and Vigil to #EndVaccineApartheid” in early June, part of a weeklong series of such events across the US outside the consulates of nations that had yet to support the WTO waiver process.  After gathering outside Pfizer, we marched to the UN Missions of the European Union, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany where we held die-ins on the sidewalks outside their buildings.  The events were held prior to the June WTO meeting and G7 meeting in England.

Next up: 

We and our local Free the Vaccine partners will be taking place in a national week of action in the lead up to the WTO Council meeting on July 21^st.  Watch for future announcement of details!

Looking ahead, there is still much work to do over the coming to get this waiver negotiated and in place as quickly as possible, ideally by sometime this summer, so that countries in need can move ahead quickly to make and administer vaccines to their citizens and end the pandemic for all of us. 

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 7^th, 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.

Part and parcel of our budget advocacy on public health and health care is the simultaneous imperative to push for what will make our priorities a reality: actual dollar allocations. Doing so will require the State Legislature to turn away from Gov. Cuomo’s long-held insistence on cut-and-starve austerity politics. Now is their chance (and time!) to challenge him, and to lead our state in a new and different direction so that we can turn the corner on the pandemic and economic recession.

Unleashing Medicaid

Medicaid is currently the bedrock of our state’s health systems. It is simultaneously an insurance coverage program for over a third of our state’s residents, the financial foundation of our hospitals and health care safety net, and a vital public health program that helps to protect all of us. Unfortunately, for the past decade our state leaders have imposed an arbitrary global growth cap on Medicaid, regardless of any change in circumstances, enrollment growth, and demand for services. In effect, this policy has turned our Medicaid program into a de-facto block grant, something our state’s leaders have always vehemently (and correctly!) opposed when proposed at the federal level.

Over the past year, because of the pandemic and recession our Medicaid program has grown substantially and is now bursting at the seams. It’s trying to do what it’s supposed to do yet is severely hampered by the global cap mechanism. It’s time to turn away from austerity measures and scrap the cap. We must let Medicaid be Medicaid, and that will require substantial additional financial resources.

Raising the Money

The new “Invest in Our New York” campaign, of which we are a member, is promoting a package of six bills to make sure that there’s adequate state funding available to respond to a host of urgent needs that everyday New Yorkers have because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession. Chief among these needs is a) restoration of a robust public health system that has been severely diminished over the past two decades, and b) strengthening and expanding of our health care safety net and public insurance programs. Both of these urgent priorities will require significant new funding from state coffers, regardless of what may come down from the federal government in the next pandemic relief bill now moving through Congress.

The Invest in Our New York Act is a package of six bills that will raise substantial new revenue by rolling back various special state tax breaks that have been given to large corporations and the ultra-wealthy over recent decades, so that they pay their fair share along with the rest of us. These new funds will be used to a) help out everyday people in this moment of crisis, and b) restore funding to state agencies and programs that have been starved for resources over the past decade. (Click here to learn more about the six bills, and then scroll down.)

The Invest in Our New York Act will restore progressivity to our state’s tax system by a) slightly raising what very rich people pay in wage and investment income taxes, and what large corporations pay on their profits, b) slightly raising taxes on large inheritances, c) slightly taxing overall personal wealth growth, and d) restoring a tiny sales tax on stock trades and other financial transactions that the state used to collect. Taken all together, estimates are that these bills could raise as much as $50 billion. Just imagine what we could do for public health and health care with just a portion of that!

Click here to get more involved in the Invest in Our New York campaign in various ways.

What YOU can do:

As you undertake your advocacy on health care issues, we urge you to also call for our state leaders to raise new revenues by ending special tax breaks given to those who already have the most income and wealth, so as to a) help the millions of everyday New Yorkers who desperately need help right now, and b) reverse a decade or more of austerity politics and foster broad prosperity instead. The Invest in Our New York Act offers a template, and there are also other legislative proposals from other quarters that put forth ideas in a similar vein. We need our state leaders to not just talk the talk (which many do robustly) but to also walk the walk, and get it done.

Each year, March is budget month for our state government in Albany. In addition, this year is unique because one year ago today the first COVID-19 case was announced in New York. Since then, over 1.6 million New Yorkers have been infected, including 725,000 in New York City, and over 47,000 state residents have died with over 29,000 in New York City.

Over the next few weeks, Governor Cuomo and the State Legislature will be negotiating out a spending and tax plan for our next fiscal year that begins on April 1st. Now is time to contact them to speak up for what New Yorkers need to a) improve our public health,  and b) expand access to health care. Both are matters that are so very important given the COVID-19 pandemic we are all coping with.

The state budget process begins in mid-January when the Governor releases his own proposals. Then the State Legislature holds a round of topic-specific public hearings on them ending by late February, and the Governor releases any 30-day amendments. During the first half of March, each chamber of the Legislature crafts and passes their own “one-house” budget packages, working off the Governor’s proposals. It is here that they support some of his proposals, reject others, and add new ideas of their own. Stakeholders –including advocates– pay a lot of attention at this time and work to get their own priorities included in them. Finally, during the latter part of the month, the Governor and legislative leaders hammer out an agreement based on what each has put forward.

Based on the analyses of various consumer and patient health advocacy groups, here’s what we are recommending to the Legislature about Gov. Cuomo’s proposals:

What the State Legislature should support:

• Getting rid of all premiums for medical coverage for people enrolled in the state’s “Essential Plan” (a special insurance program for low-income people and families who don’t qualify for Medicaid, up to about $1,100/mo. for an individual.)
• Increasing funds to consumer assistance programs run by non-profits that provide ombuds services to patients with using health insurance, getting access to health care, and resolving billing problems.
• Lowering the interest rates that hospitals can charge patients for overdue bills from (currently allowed) 9% to the federal Treasury rate (currently about 1.5%.)

What the State Legislature should reject:

• Continuing the Medicaid global cap for two more years.
• Denial of any indigent care pool funds to public hospital systems across the state (including in NYC, Westchester, Nassau, Erie, and SUNY systems in Suffolk, Brooklyn, and Syracuse.)
• Across-the-board Medicaid rate cuts to hospitals designated as “enhanced safety net providers” who treat large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients.
• “Article 6” basic public health funding cuts to New York City.
• Funding cuts to the “Vital Access Provider Assurance Program” which helps hospitals that are financially unstable.

What the State Legislature should add:

• Getting rid of any separate Essential Plan premiums for dental and vision coverage.
• Expanding the Essential Plan to cover all low-income immigrants, especially for those ongoing COVID-19 treatment outside of the hospital.
• More funding for community-based health insurance enrollment programs to help people who are uninsured because of the pandemic recession.
• More funding for the state’s Long-Term Care Ombuds Program that helps nursing home residents and their family members.
• Higher wages for workers who provide home and community-based long-term care services, and more funding for programs to recruit and train them.
• Replacement funds to community health centers who are inadvertently losing access to federal “340B Drug Pricing Program” subsidies because of recent changes to New York’s Medicaid Managed Care program.
• Repeal eligibility restrictions imposed last year for home and community-based services for people with moderate levels of disability. (They have not yet been implemented because of federal restrictions related to special Medicaid pandemic funding to states.)

What YOU can do:

• Contact Gov. Cuomo and your own State Senator and Assemblymember to express your opinions on any of the above ideas. Write, call, email, and reach to them via social media.
• Use your own social media accounts to let others know about what’s going on and how any of the above issues may be affecting you, your family, and/or your community.
• Keep up to date by following the activities and statements of Health Care for All New York and Medicaid Matters New York via their websites and social media accounts.
• Keep in touch with us by checking in regularly with our website and Facebook page.

PS — What about the New York Health Act?

This bill to create a fully-public universal health care program covering all New Yorkers is not on the table in this year’s state budget process. However, it will become an active priority for supporters during the second half of this year’s legislative session once the budget process is over. People can keep up to date with all that via the Campaign for New York Health.

As we now focus in on 2021 after a very distressing previous year, we welcome a new presidential administration taking office in Washington, a likely new US Senate, and strong progressive majorities in our State Legislature. Both developments offer us new opportunities –and responsibilities– to bring community and labor together to fight for health care justice, as we have for 28 years now. Given the ravages and challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its deep economic recession, we have much vital work to lead on.

Here’s what people can do to help get us off on the right foot:

Donate NOW to our upcoming (delayed) 2020 Annual Gala that is taking place online one week from tonight, Wed. Jan. 13^th from 6-7:30 p.m.

We need to make up for lost fundraising opportunities that were short-circuited last year because of the pandemic, so we need everyone to please be as generous as you can, to help refill our significantly diminished coffers.

It’s easy! Just click here to make a donation.

(…or if you prefer, mail us a check to: Metro NY Health Care for All, 420 West 45^th Street, DC 37 AFSCME, New York, NY 10036.)

We also want to invite everyone to attend our online Gala from the comfort of your own home. Just click here to register!

We have some terrific honorees and inspiring speakers that we know you’ll want to hear about and hear from. They include:

• Heather Booth, Founder and Chair of the Midwest Academy as our keynote speaker
• Assemblymember Karines Reyes for her governmental leadership
• People of Color Health Justice Campaign for its community leadership
• Katie Robbins of the Campaign for New York Health for her community leadership
• The various unions who represent frontline health care workers in our hospitals for their collective trade union leadership to provide quality patient care to COVID-19 patients. These unions include: Committee of Interns and Residents; Doctors Council, District Council 37 Locals 389, 420, 436, 768, 1189, 2507, and 3621; Federation of Nurses/UFT; New York Professional Nurses Union; New York State Nurses Association; 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East; and United University Professions Downstate Medical Center Chapter.

We thank everyone for all they do to fight for health care for all across New York and the U.S., and for helping us to get back on our feet and off and running in 2021. Public support will make that all possible!

After MONTHS of obstruction and negligence by the Senate Majority and then weeks of negotiations between them, the House, and White House reps, Congress has finally passed a long-overdue pandemic relief package. Its provisions will address the pandemic itself, and also help millions of people across New York and the US who are in economic and personal crises because of it. After much public bombast and threats, President Trump finally signed the bill into law this past Sunday evening.

There’s much more that needs to be done once a new Congress and new presidential administration take office next month (see partial list below), and we stand ready to assist our two Senators and our city and state’s Congressional delegation to make that happen, as we have since the pandemic arrived last winter. In the end, this new law is much more an “immediate relief” one as opposed to a more forward-looking “recovery and stimulus” one, and came in around $910 billion in new spending.

We want to thank all of YOU, our partners and supporters, for everything you did to contribute to the various provisions that made it into the final bill, and to build the political pressure that got it across the finish line. It was a lot of intense work in recent weeks and months. Working with our various partners in the New York State Network of Health Care for America Now, we focused in on the vital public health and health care aspects of the legislation, and supported our social justice allies who attended to other important pieces of it.

We also want to acknowledge and thank our own Senator Charles Schumer for his role as Senate Minority Leader to get this bill done. He was tireless in finally getting the Senate Majority to engage in negotiations, and worked with House leadership to make many improvements to what the Senate Majority had initially put on the table many weeks ago. Sen. Schumer also held numerous online meetings and conference calls with New York advocates and activists from across our state to keep us all informed of the state-of-play, listening to our policy concerns and recommendations, and strategizing to keep the legislative process moving forward to completion.

Here’s a brief overview of what ended up in the new law, known as the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 133.)

• $190B for a whole slew of public health programs related to combating the pandemic, including vaccination programs.
• $12B for family support programs focusing on child care and elder care.
• $165B for primary, secondary, and higher education programs.
• $27B for transportation programs.
• Extension of a various programs for unemployed workers  
• One-time direct financial assistance to individuals and families, averaging $600/person.
• Extension of a variety of programs to support small businesses and their payrolls, including non-traditional, community-based financial institutions.
• $25B for rental assistance, including eviction protections.
• Extensions of and increased funding for a variety of community food assistance programs, including protecting and raising SNAP benefits (Food Stamps.)
• Funding to keep the US Postal Service financially viable.
• Funding to increase/improve broadband technology.
• Allows states and cities that received CARES Act funds to keep using it through 2021.

This law was enacted as part of a much larger omnibus budget and spending package for the federal government overall. Here’s what else got done on health care and related issues:

• New protections for patients against surprise medical bills. While New York has had strong protections in place for several years now, they only applied to the types of health insurance that they regulate. Workers with coverage from their jobs were largely left in the lurch. This new federal law, modeled on New York’s system, will now protect them too.
• Extends funding for health care, including Community Health Centers, National Health Service Corps, Teaching Health Centers, and special diabetes programs.
• Allows families who are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit flexibility in determining these credits. (Income support keeps people healthy!)
• Funds new affordable housing projects by establishing a four percent minimum credit rate for the low-income housing tax credit. (Housing IS health care!)

What Got Left Out and is now Still-to-Do-Next:

• LOTS more general financial assistance to states and localities. to enable them to balance their budgets for the current budget year and the next one. Doing so will allow them to provide vital public services to combat the pandemic and its economic aftermath.
• Raising the Medicaid matching rate for states, to help support their various health care programs that are playing a critical role in fighting the pandemic and providing health care to millions who need it.
• Helping unemployed workers who’ve lost their jobs because of the pandemic to keep their current health insurance coverage in place throughout the public health emergency or transition to other existing options available through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
• Opening up Medicare to those who are uninsured.
• One-time direct payments for undocumented workers and their families.

2020 has proven to be quite a challenging year as our nation, state, and city have confronted the worst public health crisis in over a century. Strong advocacy, activism, and community-labor collaboration has helped to shape their responses in good and necessary ways, and we are proud of the parts we have played in those efforts. Yet much of that endeavor remains a work-in-progress, and we have much work ahead for the foreseeable future.

New date! Same terrific honorees and speakers!

What to do? “Contribute now in 2020, Celebrate soon in 2021!”

2020 has clearly shown us that “We’re All in This Together!” as New Yorkers from all walks of life joined forces in various ways to respond to the immense challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The moments have been overwhelming, inspiring, heroic, and tragic at times, for many months now. We at Metro New York Health Care for All have done our best to play our part to bring community and labor together to address critical health care justice and policy aspects of the pandemic.  

We’re gathering soon for our 2020 Health Care Justice Leadership Annual Gala to celebrate and salute some very worthy individuals and groups who’ve risen to the occasion in exemplary ways, and all are invited to join us! The event will be held on Wednesday evening January 13th from 6 to 7:15 p.m. This year for the first time we’ll be holding our Gala online, as is the necessary practice these days. We’ll miss seeing and greeting everyone in person, but look forward to doing so again in another year. In the meantime, feel free to bring your own libations and nibbles to your own home screen!

Our honorees for this year’s Annual Gala include:

For Governmental Leadership — New York State Assemblymember Karines Reyes. RN, who represents the 87^th District including the Bronx neighborhoods of Castle Hill, Parkchester, and Van Nest since 2019.  Prior to beginning her legislative career, she worked as an oncology nurse at Montefiore Medical Center and the Eastchester Cancer Center.  During her nursing career, she became active in the leadership of the New York State Nurses Association, including her bargaining unit. At several times over the past decade, Ms. Reyes stepped away from her day-to-day life to join with nurses providing emergency relief work following natural disasters in Haiti (2010) and Puerto Rico (2017), and most recently went back to work as a nurse at Montefiore to provide care to patients with COVID-19 illness.

For Trade Union Leadership — All the various New York unions who represent frontline health care workers, including the Committee of Interns and Residents; District Council 37 AFSCME, Locals 389, 420, 436, 768, 1189, 2507 & 3621; Doctors Council; New York State Nurses Association; New York Professional Nurses Union; 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, and the SUNY Downstate chapter of United University Professions. These unions’ leaders and members have heroically stepped forward since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic across our city and region.  They have performed far above and beyond the call of duty, treating patients seriously ill with COVID-19 disease for hours and days on end.  Many became ill themselves, and some made the ultimate sacrifice of their very lives.

For Community Leadership:

• People of Color Health Justice Campaign, a collaboration that came together early this year in response to the severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic upon communities of color across our city.  It is jointly led by Adhikaar, African Services Committee, Black Feminist Project, Coalition  for Asian-American Children and Families, Commission on the Public’s Health System in NYC, Laal NYC, Mekong NYC, Minkwon Center, Mothers on the Move, and Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center.

• Katie Robbins, MPH, has just stepped down as Executive Director of the Campaign for New York Health after 4 years.  Prior to that she was Executive Director of the New York Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Programs from 2014-2017 after serving as a part-time Projects Manager from 2012, and National Organizer for Healthcare Now from 2008-2011. During the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011-12, Katie helped to spearhead its “Health Care for the 99%” component.

We’re delighted that our keynote speaker will be long-time social justice and workers’ rights warrior Heather Booth, Founder and Chair of the Midwest Academy, and co-author of the seminal community and labor organizer’s handbook “Organizing for Social Change”. (They even made a documentary move about her!)

How to attend our online 2020 Annual Gala:

• FIRST, EVERYONE should RSVP here  so that your name gets on the list to receive further information by email.
• NEXT, Individuals should make your donation here (by close of business on Tuesday December 15.) Our suggested contribution is $75/person, however any amount larger or smaller is welcome and appreciated to attend. Once your donation is made, you will receive the online connection information for the event.
• Unions and organizations can submit their donations here once a specific commitment is made. Groups can support our Gala by joining the Host Committee, placing an announcement in the Commemorative Journal, and/or reserving a package of tickets.  Each group will receive a number of complimentary tickets based on the type and amount of support, and they can be used by any leader, member, or staff. Please check with your lead contact for our Gala to receive the connection info for the event and any questions you may have.

Finally, we need to ask everyone to please be as generous as you can with your financial support for our Annual Gala this year. Because of the arrival of the pandemic last spring, we had to forego our Annual Dues Campaign that we normally conduct at that time of year. Fortunately, we had sufficient reserves on hand at the time to see us through the summer and fall, but now our resources are depleted and must be replenished for us to continue our important work in 2021.  

We have a lot of crucial work before us to continue the now-very-crucial fight for health care for all, given the ongoing pandemic. The good news is that because of the new make-up of the State Legislature resulting from the recent elections, we now have some new opportunities to make significant progress on several fronts. We must now seize the moment to join forces with others to reject austerity politics and push for broad social justice, including universal health care. Your strong financial support will enable us to forge ahead as a lead voice for health care justice in those alliances.

Once again, the future of our health care is front and center on the ballot this fall …along with many other crucial social justice issues, and our very democracy itself (no joke.)

So, it’s time for all of us to link arms because we are indeed all in this together.

• Job #1: Get as many people as we can to the polls to vote.
• Job #2: Make sure every vote gets counted, and the results respected.

We’ve all seen the inspiring photos and reports of long lines for early voting all across our city and nation. That’s all good so far, but there’s still more to do, and we can’t let up.

Most importantly, we urge everyone to begin to plan NOW for what happens after Election Day. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are voting by mail this year, and so the results may not be immediately known on election night. We will all have to be patient for the counting up to conclude, which could take up to a few days. Unfortunately, President Trump and his allies say they may not accept the results should they lose, and suggest they will use the courts and state legislatures in (likely underhanded) ways to disqualify votes and challenge the overall totals. We can’t let that happen!

To counter this direct threat to our democracy, many political forces have joined together in the new Protect the Results campaign to respect the vote outcomes. We urge everyone to jump into this effort. Your organization or union can endorse it, alert others to its activities, and call on people to participate in them, either individually or in organizational contingents. You can find further information on all that here.

Regardless of the state of the vote count, the first event will take place in communities nationwide on Wed. Nov. 4^th. You can sign-up here to get information and updates on what’s being planned in NYC. As things stand now, the event will begin at 4 p.m. at the main New York Public Library, located at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan followed by a march down 5th Ave. to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. That stated, things may change, so be sure to keep checking back.

We are all keeping our fingers crossed that the supporters and champions of health care for all and health care justice will come out victors. Many of us are working hard to make that happen, and we thank you for all your efforts.