Download our two new fact sheets and help spread the word by sharing them with your friends, neighbors and family.

How the New Health Care Law Helps You and Myths About Health Care Reform.

How the New Health Care Law Helps YOU

Myths About Health Care Reform

This situation has led to an unprecedented level of anger among the American people – ordinary citizens don’t want their government and their lives dominated by corporate wealth and greedy special interests. And now there is hope that we can do something about it.

We can take back control of our political system and make elected officials accountable to us. We can put American voters back in the driver’s seat with citizen-funded elections, where candidates for Congress only get funding if they share the values and concerns of the people back home. We can elect officials who will solve our problems and address our concerns, not those of wealthy donors and their paid lobbyists. It’s not enough to rail at Washington. We need to replace corporate-funded elections with Fair Elections.

And right now we have the chance. There are over 155 members of the House of Representatives who have co-sponsored a bill that would change the way campaigns are financed. This reflects a ground swell of support for the Congressional Fair Elections Act, a bill that would allow candidates for Congress to run with a combination of small donations and public financing.

With Fair Elections ordinary citizens could run for office, candidates would not spend their time courting rich donors and special interests, and politicians would work for us! The cost would be paid for by a tax on corporations with large federal contracts.

We need your help to bring this important bill to a vote this summer.

You can help end legalized bribery dressed up as campaign contributions from big business. Call or write your House of Representative member and tell him or her you want them to put elections back into the hands of citizens by voting for Fair Elections!

To get involved in the critical fight for Fair Elections contact me at joanm@democracymatters.org.

Our research and education affiliate, the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, just published two new fact sheets about what’s actually in the new health care law.

Help us spread the word about reform and how it’ll help all of us by sharing these fact sheets with your friends, neighbors and family.

The first, How the New Health Care Law Helps You! Click here to download a pdf.

• You can’t be dropped or denied health insurance if you get sick.
• Small businesses and non-profits will get financial help to provide insurance.
• Your kids will be covered.
• Seniors will pay lower costs for prescriptions and get preventive health care.
• Insurance for individuals and families will be more affordable, and there will be help to pay for it.

You can’t be denied insurance for a past illness. Children previously treated for diseases like cancer can’t be denied coverage starting this year and adults by 2014. Also this year, a new coverage program will be set up for adults who can’t find or afford insurance and have a pre-existing condition.

You can’t be dropped and your coverage can’t be capped. Gone are the days when you run out of coverage if you get cancer, HIV/AIDs or other serious illnesses: lifetime limits will be banned this year and annual limits will be restricted now and eliminated in 2014.

Small businesses and non-profits will get financial help to provide insurance for their employees. Starting now, small businesses can get tax credits of up to 35% of their insurance costs rising to 50% in 2014. And starting in 2014, small employers will be able to purchase cheaper insurance through an exchange.

Seniors and others won’t go broke due to high drug costs. Seniors and the disabled with high enough drug costs so that they fall into the “donut hole” will get a $250 rebate check this year. By 2020, the “donut hole” will be eliminated: only the 25% co-pay will remain. For others, co-pays and deductibles will eventually be eliminated.

Young adults up to 29 have new coverage options. Starting this year, due to the new federal law and a new state law, you can stay on your parent’s health insurance plan.

If you have coverage through your job, it’s likely to be cheaper. When the law fully kicks in, if your current insurance is too expensive, you’ll be able to buy insurance through an exchange and get financial help to do it.

If you don’t have employer coverage, you’ll be able to purchase lower cost coverage. Starting in 2014, if you earn up to roughly $88,000 a year (family of four), you’ll get financial aid to buy coverage: up to 1.6 million New Yorkers will be helped. You will be able to buy cheaper coverage through “exchanges” – shopping malls for insurance. Exchanges will also set standards to keep insurers honest.

Preventative services will be free. This protection, which starts this year, means you won’t be stopped from getting necessary services like vaccinations and mammograms because of cost.

The second, Myths About Health Care Reform. Click here to download a pdf.

Myth #1: Health reform is a government takeover: it’s socialism!

Truth: The new federal law builds on the current system of private insurance by extending private coverage to millions of additional people. The law stops the worst health insurer abuses — like denying people insurance because they were previously sick or dumping people when they do get sick. Even before the law was passed, states regulated private insurance companies to make sure they had enough money to pay claims and in other ways. The new regulations add to the existing laws that protect us from private health insurance company abuses. That’s no government takeover and doesn’t make it socialism.

And what’s wrong with a greater government role when needed? Medicare is a successful government program that’s provided health care coverage to seniors and the disabled for decades.

Myth #2: Health reform costs too much: it will increase the deficit.

Truth: Reform will actually reduce the deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years and far more in the following decade, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Many of the savings come from greater efficiencies — getting more health care out of our health spending.

Myth #3: Health reform will raise taxes on the middle class.

Truth: The new law only raises income taxes on those who earn more than $200,000 per year ($250,000 for joint returns): wealthy individuals.

Myth #4: You will have to give up your own doctor and your existing coverage.

Truth: The new law does nothing to limit the ability of Americans to choose their own doctors and will not require people to drop their existing coverage.

Myth #5: Reform will cut Medicare.

Truth: The new law actually strengthens Medicare by requiring free preventive care, closing the prescription drug “donut hole,” and making Medicare financially healthy for an additional 10 years. No Medicare benefits are cut, although there are cuts to providers and insurance companies. Private insurers that run Medicare Advantage plans will lose much of their unfair subsidies, which have increased their profits at the expense of taxpayers and the rest of Medicare beneficiaries.

Myth #6: It’s not fair to fine individuals for not obtaining health care coverage.

Truth: For the health care system to bring costs under control, everyone needs to pay their fair share through buying insurance. Otherwise, costs will spiral out of control for those who do purchase insurance. It’s just like auto insurance today: you have to obtain auto insurance if you drive, even if you’ve never had an accident. (Under the new law, if you can actually prove buying health insurance is truly a financial hardship, you won’t have to obtain coverage or pay a penalty.)

A big reason we pay so much for health care today is that when people without coverage have a medical emergency, those costs are passed on to all of us: insured people, taxpayers, hospitals and doctors. Requiring everyone to be insured will lower these costs for everyone.

Myth #7: Reform will lead to rationing.

Truth: Reform will not reduce benefits either for private coverage or for public programs like Medicare or Medicaid. In fact, reform will vastly limit current insurance company rationing by ending such practices as dumping people when they get sick, refusing to pay for needed care and discriminating against people with a history of illness (“pre-existing conditions”). The law also provides funding and incentives for more doctors and other providers to meet the needs of patients.

Myth #8: Single payer is the only real solution.

Truth: We agree that single payer would be the best solution, but we didn’t have enough political power to replace the insurance companies with a government plan for all. The new law will curb the worst abuses for everyone, extend health insurance to over 30 million additional Americans now without insurance, and improve the quality of coverage for millions more. Now that the law has passed, we should unite and fight to make sure that the new law works as effectively as possible and take full advantage of the provisions of the law that allow states to set up single payer systems or other public plans.

The lies about what health care reform means for each of us aren’t about to stop. The teabaggers and their corporate sponsors are fighting tooth an nail to scale back the new law. Let’s not let them. Download these fact sheets now and give them to you friends and family. If you’d like printed copies, contact your local Citizen Action organizer.

We are also scheduling presentations in many regions across the state about the health care law. Click here to see if there’s an event scheduled near you.

Special thanks to Northeast Action for their help with developing the content on the “myths” fact sheet.

I’m back in Albany now. There was so much to do at the US Social Forum in Detroit that I couldn’t find 30 minutes to sit and write about what was going on! It was an amazing experience–the people, the ideas, the energy. I left Saturday morning while other folks were preparing to protest an the placement of an incinerator by planting a garden across the street with 4-foot-tall sunflowers.

Here are some of the highlights of my trip:

Detroit and the People Mover

True, I am easily impressed and tend to fall in love with every city I go to.  But here is why I love Detroit.  It’s beautiful the way a dead tree is beautiful: smooth and graceful without its leafs.  Anyone can just admire the poetry of its structure and that is how all of these elegant buildings–now empty–stand.

The coolest part, hands-down, is the People Mover.  Really, that’s its official name!  It’s an above ground rail like something out of the Jetsons cartoon.  A two car train runs along a cement structure about one to two stories above us that circles the city, kind of like the monorail at the Bronx Zoo.  Not only is it an efficient way to get around town, but it’s a unique view of the city, traveling in between those beautiful buildings and looking into the windows thinking of what once was.  Yet unlike the monorail at the Bronx Zoo, you can ride for just 50 cents.

Detroit’s emptiness is haunting.  Driving into the city at 5pm Tuesday afternoon, my caravan was one of the few cars on the road.   I’ve been told that this is partially a result of urban planning.  The city was intended for car efficiency, with enough roads to avoid congestion during the height of its population.  Friends who went on an auto-factory tour saw a factory that was 7 times the size of a football field; and it’s completely empty.  How do you renovate a space like that?

While Detroit holds a record 30% unemployment rate, it also holds a record for the most food gardens.  Detroit also stands out for having the one of the highest concentrations of restaurants and is home to Restaurant Opportunities Center, a kick ass group that fights for rights of restaurant workers.  Check em out at http://www.rocunited.org/

Time Banking: A New Way to Organize, Subvert Capitalism Or Just Get Your Lawn Mowed!

Definitely one of the best workshops I attended was hosted by Time Banks USA.  It’s a system of work-exchange where everyone is equal.  People give or receive goods and services and earn or spend time bank hours.   Although Portland, Maine has over 600 members, a time bank ideally has a small geographic boundary like the Delaware Avenue Neighborhood in Albany or Ellicott District in Buffalo.  It’s a way to get people to build relationships with the people who live next to them and also to give folks who are out of work an opportunity to have currency (just not cash currency).

I met a woman who coordinates a time bank in the Sobrante Park neighborhood of Oakland, CA, which was initiated by the County Health Department as a means to bridge a divide, which often results in violence between the African American and the Latino communities in that neighborhood.  While this time bank provides many economic benefits, it also heals and shifts the balance of power.  In the workshop, the coordinator talked about a town hall meeting she held between the Spanish speaking community and the police.  The meeting was held in Spanish, and the police had to wear headphones for simultaneous translation.

What if we had time banking in every community and folks earned time banking hours for volunteering, taking actions, and registering folks to vote?  Think of how that could change organizing and grow the movement.

Do’s and Don’ts for those planning to attend the next US Social Forum

1. Do think ahead of time about which workshops you want to attend since looking through 1500 options the day-of will overwhelm you.
2. Don’t stress out too much if the workshop you chose is canceled, just randomly go into any workshop, and you’ll probably learn something.
3. Do stay at the old cheap hotel that’s almost 100 years old with its broken air conditioner, moth ball smell and all.
4. Don’t freak out when you see the fancy-shmancy hotel all the Jobs With Justice people are staying at.  Your old cheap hotel is pretty, has nice people working there, and you’ll end up meeting a lot of new folks as you all converge in the lobby, the only place with an internet connection.
5. If you stay at the hotel, do make friends with the staff since you may need them to wake you up when you pass out drunk outside your room at 3 in the morning and not laugh at you.
6. Do take a walking tour of whatever city will be hosting the next US Social Forum, or just plan your own tour but get out of the conference center and the touristy areas.
7. Do also meet up with a local resident like Detroit’s Unofficial Ambassador Evan to show you around the historic buildings and the local bars.
8. Do not let him convince you its tradition to do a shot at every bar – but if you do, don’t worry, if you follow the advice in numbers 3-5, it’ll all work out.
9. Do come with some goals in mind for what you would like to get out of the US Social Forum, but..
10. Don’t panic and stay flexible.  There’s so much to experience that even if you wing it, you will leave energized, inspired, and connected.

I’m spending the next few days in Detroit, MI at the United States Social Forum. The tagline is that another world is possible, another US is necessary. I’m here to absorb as much as I can to bring back to Citizen Action and also to augment my own journey in the movement. There are over 10,000 artists, union organizers, community organizers, service providers, activists and whoever else you can imagine. People are learning, teaching, talking and partying together. I’ll be writing a series of posts to share as much as I can with everyone who couldn’t make it to Detroit.

Already just from my drive here (10 hours via Canada!) with two amazing women who are artists, academics and organizers themselves, dinner with some other folks from the Capital District and breakfast this morning, several ideas and debates are percolating:

What function do art, other forms of expression and play have in the movement? Is it being valued and utilized enough in our work?

Do we need a master plan, like the corporatists have implemented over the last 50 years? Or does the Left just do what it does and assume things will ultimately come together even if it takes a lot more time (my NY’er control freak sensibility says PLAN! PLAN! PLAN!)

How do we as activists hold multiple truths at the same time? How do we live in the struggle and live in our own lives? Are those separate? Can they be?

So stay tuned as I go through the next four days and hopefully get some answers from some of the inspiring people gathering here. FYI, there are over 100 workshops during any given time slot. They range from jobs/work/economy to climate change,
youth organizing to health care reform, prison rights to culture and media.

Many organizations that Citizen Action works with regularly are also here: Jobs with Justice, The NY State Stimulus Alliance, United for Fair Economy (and our favorite trainer Jeannette) and a gazillion others. Oh and of course, Jim Anderson.

So I’m on my way to Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit to register. It’s 90 degrees and crazy humid (big lake nearby) so it feels just like home. If you want to read more about the forum you can go to the website: www.ussf2010.org. Also I think Amy Goodman is here so you can listen to Democracy Now and hear more about it.

I’ll also be tweeting @sgoldman78.

For Immediate Release: June 22, 2010

Senator Eric Schneiderman, Consumer and Senior Representatives Call for Passage of Legislation to Protect New Yorkers From Deceptive Surcharges on Debit Cards

Albany, NY – Organizations representing consumers, seniors and credit unions joined with Senator Eric Schneiderman (D-31st) to call for passage this week of a bill he sponsors (S.7267-B) and similar legislation in the Assembly to ban surcharges on debit cards, which are used for consumer purchases and to access government benefits. The groups also called for the Senate and the Assembly to reach agreement on surcharge legislation and to pass it into law before the end of the session.

“It is a fundamental principle of consumer protection that merchants can’t advertise one price and then charge a higher price at the checkout counter,” said Senator Schneiderman. “But that’s exactly what’s happening when consumers are stuck with a fee just for using a debit card. State law doesn’t allow surcharges on credit card purchases, and it shouldn’t allow them for debit cards either. Seniors and other consumers are under enough economic stress already: they shouldn’t have to pay another tax just to access their benefits or buy the everyday goods they need to get by.”

“Both houses of the Legislature have a great opportunity to nip in the bud nuisance fees on debit cards that threaten the wallets of seniors, those on fixed incomes, young people, and those who receive government benefits,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York, a multi-issue consumer and social justice organization. “We thank Senator Schneiderman and Assemblywoman Pheffer for their leadership, and we urge both houses to pass common legislation to ban debit card surcharges before the end of session.”

In 1984, New York banned surcharges on credit cards, but not debit cards, as they were not then in common use. Legislation is necessary to close this loophole now that debit cards have become an increasingly common form of payment. Maine and Kansas have already banned debit card surcharges, and other states are considering similar legislation.

“The use of debit cards is increasing, because they provide a direct, effective way for households to pay bills off right away, and avoid accumulating household debt,” said Chuck Bell, programs director for Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. “This legislation will ensure that consumers who choose to use debit and prepaid cards will not be penalized with retailer surcharges.”

“This legislation is particularly important because government benefits, such as Social Security payments, are increasingly distributed using debit cards. By 2013. most federal benefits, including Social Security, will be distributed by direct deposit or by prepaid debit card for those who do not have bank accounts,” said Laura Cameron, Executive Director of the New York State Association of Area Agencies on Aging. “Consumers who receive their Social Security payments in the form of a debit card should not be required to pay surcharges when using these cards at the checkout counter.”

Debit cards are now used by many New Yorkers to access government benefits like unemployment and public assistance. Social Security payments will be accessed by debit cards beginning in 2013. S.7267 makes clear that offering discounts to induce customers to pay by cash or check is not prohibited, as this does not present an issue of consumer deception. The Senate bill also permits surcharges if a consumer receives cash back after making a debit card purchase, but only on the cash received, not the entire purchase. Senate passage of the bill is highly likely. Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-23) has sponsored a similar bill (A.10430-A) in the Assembly.

“Aside from using cash, debit cards are the most financially responsible means for consumers to avoid debt through making purchases they can’t afford. In today’s economic climate, the Legislature should follow the credit unions’ lead and do all it can to encourage thrift among New York’s consumers,” said Amy Kramer, Vice President for Government Affairs of the Credit Union Association of New York. “Our 451 not-for-profit credit unions and their 4.4 million members are also concerned that merchants will discriminate against debit cards issued by smaller financial institutions, resulting in higher costs and less consumer choice.”

“As government benefits are distributed using debit cards, it is vitally important to pass S.7267 and A. 10430 into law to protect consumers and ensure that retailers cannot impose surcharges on purchases made using a debit card,” said Cameron.

“We commend the sponsors of this legislation for adding the provisions relating to prepaid cards, which are likely to be used by consumers who receive government benefits and do not have access to mainstream banking services,” Bell said. “These critically important protections will ensure that consumers who receive unemployment benefits or payroll income on prepaid cards will not be required to pay additional surcharges at retail stores.”

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But winning health care reform was only the first step.

Here in New York, over the past decade, health insurance premiums have skyrocketed – up 92%, while wages have increased by only 14%. According to a recent study by Health Care for America Now, America’s five largest insurance companies reported record profits of $12.2 billion in 2009, an increase of $4.4 billion, or 56%, from 2008.

These outrageous rate increases have forced too many New Yorkers to drop their health insurance or face bankrupting financial hardship.

Years of hard work culminated late Monday night, when we won a major victory in making health insurance more affordable. Both the State Senate and the Assembly passed a bill that requires health insurance companies to get approval of their proposed rate increases from the Insurance Department before those rate increases go into effect. On Wednesday, the Governor signed it into law.

As a result, New York will not see cases like the 39% premium increase put forth by Wellpoint’s subsidiary, Anthem, in California. Some insurance companies in Pennsylvania have raised premiums 50% – all while health care spending has only increased 5%-10%. These increased rates are clearly not about passing on increased spending incurred by Americans.

Now, the State Insurance Department will have the authority to reject or modify any rate hikes that are unreasonable, excessive or unfairly discriminatory. The public would also be allowed to submit comments to any proposed rate hikes.

Senator Neil Breslin, Chair of the Insurance Committee, demonstrated true leadership as he guided this legislation through the Senate. Along with Senator Breslin and our friends at Health Care for All New York, we worked to overcome the misguided and corrupt special interests that place insatiable profit over country and over decency. Every meeting with a legislator, phone call, fax, and email helped to make our message loud and clear. You helped make it happen.

Insurance companies will try these jaw-dropping, cold, and desperate tactics again, especially as the country begins to phase in the tenets of our hard won health care reform.

This new law is a victory for the people of New York over big money insurance lobbyists. This week, our progressive values for a better New York beat out those who care most about corporate profits.

When we fight, we can win. Let’s keep fighting.

Groups Call Upon Schumer and Gillibrand to Restore Medicaid and COBRA Health Insurance Funding

Analysis Predicts Potential Job Reductions in NYS of 77,000 and Additional State Budget Hole of $1 Billion This Year if Enhanced FMAP Not Extended

Albany, NY – As the U.S. Senate prepares to take up an important jobs and tax “extenders” bill this week, several New York organizations called upon Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand to work to restore extensions of “enhanced FMAP” (Medicaid) and COBRA funding to avoid up to 77,0000 in job losses and thousands of laid off workers being unable to afford health insurance.

“As the state begins to climb out of a recession, laid off New Yorkers and their families need COBRA health insurance benefits to avoid the risk of financial disaster,” said Bob Cohen, Policy Director of Citizen Action of New York. “The failure to extend enhanced FMAP will blow another billion dollar hole in our state budget this year that we fear will be filled by thousands of public employee layoffs, program cuts, or both. We need Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to once again stand up for working families by fighting to extend COBRA and FMAP.”

Extensions of “enhanced FMAP” (Medicaid) funding and subsidies for COBRA health insurance benefits were stripped from the jobs and tax “extender” legislation (H.R. 4213) when it was passed by the House of Representatives on May 28th, reportedly due to fears by some members of additional deficit spending.

“COBRA is a critical lifeline for laid off workers that allows them to purchase health insurance at a lower group rate,” said Heidi Siegfried, Director of Health Policy for for New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage and a leader of Health Care for all New York (HCFANY). “Without a subsidy to help them with their premiums, many laid off workers couldn’t afford health insurance. Its ironic that the same House of Representatives that passed landmark health care reform legislation in March made it much more difficult for hundreds of thousands to get health insurance in May.”

“The enhanced FMAP funding and other assistance in the federal stimulus law passed in 2009 helped states avoid even deeper service cuts and layoffs than were experienced,” said Frank Mauro of the Fiscal Policy Institute. “The national recession was deeper and longer than anyone imagined over a year ago. Now states need the money while they wait for recovery to take hold.”

COBRA benefits, part of the Consolidated Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 ( “COBRA”), allow those who lose their jobs to buy health coverage at their former employer’s group rate, less than “direct pay,” but still unaffordable for most unemployed. As part of the February 2009 stimulus law (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA), Congress included a 65% federal subsidy of COBRA premiums. A U.S. Treasury Department study, using New Jersey as an example, found that the uninsurance rate for laid off workers would rise from 40% to 55% without this subsidy. Enhanced FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentage), created as part of ARRA, increases the traditional federal contribution to FMAP to help states get through the recession. The provision dropped from the bill would have extended enhanced FMAP for 6 months. The extensions of the COBRA subsidy and enhanced FMAP were included in a version of the bill that the Senate passed on March 10th.

“Our Senators have always been champions, especially when it comes to protecting the needs of low-income New Yorkers, said Lara Kassel, Coordinator of Medicaid Matters New York. “We need them now more than ever to do everything they can to secure an extension of enhanced FMAP. Too much is at stake to let it go.”

A Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI) analysis released today finds that failure to provide enhanced FMAP benefits would most likely result in an additional $1.06 billion in state budget cuts in Fiscal Year 2010-11 on top of the cuts already on the table as part of the Governor’s gap closing plan. New York, like most states, is counting on the enhanced FMAP extension in its Executive Budget. FPI calculates that if the state decided to fill the billion dollar gap through workforce reductions, the number of layoffs would be in the 15,000-16,000 range, if the state’s cash flow situation allowed the state to make up for that loss over a 12-month period rather than just during the three month period when it is scheduled to occur. (Another alternative, reductions to Medicaid reimbursement rates, would result in large numbers of hospital and nursing home layoffs and seriously undermine patient care.)

Mayor Bloomberg’s FY 2011 budget is counting on $279 million from the 6-month extension of the enhanced FMAP rates. FPI projects a doubling of the projected number of New York City employee layoffs of non-teaching personnel from 4,556 to 9,110 employees if the City chose to fill the projected $279 million budget gap through layoffs of non-school employees. Alternatively, 3,778 teachers and school staff could be laid off. Both figures are on top of the layoffs the City is already predicting to fill its FY 2011 $4.6 billion budget gap. The full FPI analysis is available at www.ppefny.org.

Overall, due to the failure of Congress to enact a 6-month extension of enhanced FMAP rates, New York would lose about $3 billion in expected federal fiscal relief: $1.06 billion for the state government itself in 2010-11 and another $1.06 billion in 2012-13, an estimated $600 million for New York City over time, and $300 million for the counties outside New York City. Using an economic impact model (IMPLAN), FPI estimates that if the full $3 billion in lost federal fiscal relief were absorbed over a 12-month period by state and local government layoffs at an average salary level of $54,000 with payroll tax and benefit contributions of 15%, that the direct government employment loss would be around 48,000 and that the indirect and induced employment effects, which would be mostly in the private sector, would be almost 29,000. FPI thus estimates that the total job reduction statewide (direct, indirect and induced) would be about 77,000.

“New York State would experience substantial job losses if the enhanced FMAP funding is not extended,” said Frank Mauro, FPI Executive Director. “The failure to extend this needed relief would be felt everywhere in the state, and hinder the state’s economic recovery. Economists agree that now is not the time to worry about the federal deficit, but help the economy recover.”

Citizen Action and FPI also called upon Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to work to retain a provision in the bill being seriously opposed by Wall Street lobbyists that would close most of the so-called “carried interest” loophole that allows investment fund managers to shield part of their compensation as capital gains and thus pay a lower income tax rate than ordinary workers pay.

“The fight over the shape of the jobs and tax bill this week is just the first skirmish in a battle to be fought in the coming months over the shape of our federal spending and tax policies as the Bush tax cuts expire and Congress begins to tackle the deficit,” said Cohen. “Is Congress going to listen to Wall Street who is telling them to cut basic services that average Americans depend on while defending special-interest tax breaks? Or is Congress going to stand up for average Americans who are struggling to get by?”

Recorded segments of the press conference are available to press. Please contact Charlie Albanetti for more information at 518.595.9047 or calbanetti@citizenactionny.org.

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The legislation, called “prior approval,” requires health insurance companies to get approval from the State Department of Insurance before raising rates on individual and group plans.

Between 2000 and 2007, health insurance premiums rose 81%, while real wages only increased by 11% in that same time period.

The bill is expected to be signed by Governor Paterson.

Another provision within the bill would force companies in New York to spend more of each premium dollar on medical payments instead of other costs like advertising or CEO bonuses.

The amount that insurance companies spend on actual medical payments is called the medical loss ratio (MLR). This bill increases the MLR to 82% for all markets, individual and small group, up from 75% for small groups and 80% for direct pay market currently.

We, along with our allies in Health Care for All New York, have worked tirelessly during this legislative session to get this regulation passed.

Here’s what Citizen Action’s Legislative Director, Jessica Wisneski, had to say:

Congress and the President did their job passing the new federal health care law earlier this year and now New York State government is doing their job to control excessive insurance rate increases. The rate hikes we’ve seen in recent years are breaking the budgets of our families and small businesses across New York. That’s why Citizen Action fought so hard for passage of prior approval. This new law will allow the state government to protect consumers who cannot stand up to health insurers on their own. Senate Insurance Committee Chair Neil Breslin should be praised for championing this issue for the people. We applaud him and other legislators who voted for the bill as well as Governor Paterson for reinstituting rules that were dismantled under Republican rule. The new rules on insurance companies will go a long way to curtail the sky-rocketing cost of health insurance in New York.

Consumers will now have some protection for sky-rocketing insurance rates

Albany, NY – On Monday, the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly passed a bill to control skyrocketing health insurance rates. The legislation will reinstate a system known as “prior approval,” that will mandate the State Department of Insurance to reject or modify any health insurance industry premium hikes on their policy holders if the proposed rate increase is unreasonable, excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory. Citizen Action hailed the passage of the bill as a significant win to health care consumers.

“Congress and the President did their job passing the new federal health care law earlier this year and now New York State government is doing their job to control excessive insurance rate increases,” said Jessica Wisneski, Legislative Director of Citizen Action of New York. “The rate hikes we’ve seen in recent years are breaking the budgets of our families and small businesses across New York. That’s why Citizen Action fought so hard for passage of prior approval. This new law will allow the state government to protect consumers who cannot stand up to health insurers on their own.”

Between 2000 and 2007, health insurance premiums rose 81%, while real wages only increased by 11% in that same time period. The bill, expected to be signed by Governor Paterson, would require insurance companies to seek prior approval of the State Insurance Department when increasing premiums. It would also increase the mandated “Medical Loss Ratios” (MLR) and force companies in New York to spend more of each premium dollar on medical payments instead of other costs like advertising or CEO bonuses. The bill raises the MLR to 82% for all markets, individual and small group, up from 75% for small groups and 80% for direct pay market currently.

“Senate Insurance Committee Chair Neil Breslin should be praised for championing this issue for the people. We applaud him and other legislators who voted for the bill as well as Governor Paterson for reinstituting rules that were dismantled under Republican rule. The new rules on insurance companies will go a long way to curtail the sky-rocketing cost of health insurance in New York,” Wisneski added.

Citizen Action of New York is a statewide membership organization with members and offices across New York State and is a co-founder of Health Care for All New York, a coalition of over 100 consumer and health advocacy organizations statewide.

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