To: President Donald Trump, The New York State House, The New York State Senate, Governor Andrew Cuomo, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Accessible, affordable healthcare
In many areas of the country, especially metropolitan areas like New York City, fewer and fewer doctors and hospitals are accepting private insurance plans. For many, a consultation with a specialist can mean out of pocket charges of $500. or more per visit, making these services only available to the very rich, or in some cases, those with Medicare or Medicaid coverage. This excludes the working middle class and their families, including teachers, firemen and police officers who often must travel great distances to find in-network providers or affordable options.
We implore our President and legislators on the state and national level to put aside special interests and endeavor to fix our broken healthcare system and make it accessible and equitable for all Americans.
Why is this important?
Most doctors and several hospitals in the NY metropolitan area do not accept private insurance. For example, the NYSHIP Empire Plan ( to which most teachers, fireman and police officers belong) is not accepted by 95% of the doctors at NYPresbyterian/Colombia/ Cornell Hospital/ Hospital for Special Surgery (one of the best and largest in the country). Out of pocket expenses for a consultation alone can run thousands of dollars making it prohibitive for most patients. The healthcare system in this country continues to be rife with inequities in accessibility, cost and quality, and abundantly mismanaged, cost ineffective and corrupt. Our legislators need to continue to work on this problem to maximize quality, eliminate fraud and minimize the inequities that currently exist.