The NY Health Act Webinar & Discussion

Worried about cuts to Medicaid and increases to insurance premiums? While the federal government is cutting back our healthcare coverage, New York can provide for its own by passing the New York Health Act, a universal healthcare bill that would guarantee high quality, comprehensive healthcare for all New Yorkers. Our current healthcare system is failing us. New Yorkers pay the second highest costs for premiums in the country and rank in the bottom half of states for healthcare access and outcomes.

How Can We Support the New York Health Act? Join the NYS Poor People's Campaign next Tuesday for a webinar and discussion to learn more.

When: Tuesday, January 13th from 7:00 to 8:30.

Where: on Zoom. You can register here.

This event is open to all who are interested. Please spread the word.

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Presenters:

MARTHA LIVINGSTON, Ph.D., is Professor of Public Health at SUNY Old Westbury, a Board member of the New York-Metro chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program and of the Steering Committee of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Health Care. She is an organizer of the Socialist Caucus of the American Public Health Association, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Public Health Policy, and co-editor, with Mary E. O’Brien, M.D., of 10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care (New York: The New Press, 2008). She is an active member of her union, United University Professions (UUP), Local 2190 of the American Federation of Teachers. She is a lifelong activist in the civil rights, peace, labor and women’s health movements, a certified childbirth educator, and a onetime organizer for the hospital workers’ union, 1199. Martha is a serious New York Mets fan, a card-carrying member of the American Begonia Society, and a proud grandma.

RICHARD N. GOTTFRIED was first elected to the Assembly in 1970 at 23, while in law school, and retired at the end of 2022, serving 52 years – the longest-serving member of the Legislature in New York State history. He had chaired the New York State Assembly Committee on Health since 1987. He was a Democrat representing a Manhattan district  including Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown, and part of the Upper West Side.

He sponsored the N.Y. Health Act to create a single-payer health plan for New York. He was a leading proponent of patient autonomy and reproductive freedom. He was the sponsor of the law to allow medical use of marijuana in New York and the HIV Testing and Confidentiality Law. He worked to fund Medicaid, community health centers and school health clinics, and creating and expanding public health insurance programs in New York, including Child Health Plus.

He introduced the first Assembly bill to recognize same-sex marriage and the law to protect transgender rights. He was the author of the law creating Hudson River Park. He is a graduate of Cornell University (BA, 1968) and Columbia Law School (JD, 1973). He is a member of the boards of the Community Service Society, the Javits Convention Center, and Physicians for a National Health Program/NY-Metro chapter. He is a member of the NY Civil Liberties Union, the Art Students League and the China Institute.

LEONARD RODBERG holds a PhD in physics from MIT. Dr. Rodberg retired in 2017 as Professor and Chair of the Urban Studies Department at Queens College/City University of New York. He began his activities in health care in 1974, when he led the development of the Dellums Health Service Act. He was one of the founders of Physicians for a National Health Program and is now on the Board of the NY Metro Chapter, is Research Director of the Chapter, and is on the Board of the Campaign for New York Health. He served as a consultant to Assemblymember Richard Gottfried in the development of the New York Health Act. Most recently he has been involved in the fight to preserve public Medicare, not private Medicare Advantage, as the source of health coverage for retirees of the City of New York.