Health Care

Hauppauge, NY – Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy today called upon the Legislature’s Presiding Officer William Lindsay to “stop ignoring its own law” and schedule the two public hearings it is required to hold on the county’s proposed sale of its skilled nursing facility in Yaphank. “This is not a matter of interpretation, it is a matter of law,” said Levy. “The Presiding Officer is bound by the resolution passed in 2008 to schedule and conduct two public hearings on this proposed sale. His continued intransigence on this important issue will only perpetuate our budget deficit and ultimately cost county taxpayers and county employees. According to Levy, Resolutions 881-08 and 882-08 were reached through a compromise between the executive and legislative branches to establish an oversight committee to monitor the facility’s management and to develop and issue a Request for Proposals for the sale of the facility. The 5th Resolved Clause of 881-08 requires the Legislature to schedule and conduct Legislative public hearings within two weeks of receipt from my office of final recommendations on the RFP: “5th RESOLVED, that within two weeks following receipt of the County Executive’s final recommendations on the proposals submitted in response to the request of proposals and/or expressions of interest, the Presiding Officer shall schedule and conduct two additional Legislative public hearings, for further consideration of the proposals and recommendations of the County Executive;” (emphasis added). The final recommendation for sale of the facility was introduced by Levy on April 27, 2010, and was accompanied by all information required to be provided by the executive branch under Suffolk County Administrative Code Section A9-6. “Along with the 2008 resolution, Section A9-6b of the Code also requires two Legislative public hearings,” said Levy, “as well as two executive hearings, which I conducted on May 18 and 19. Presiding Officer Lindsay is duty-bound to uphold the resolutions passed by the Legislature, and he can not unilaterally decide to ignore the law. “Instead he seeks excuses to further delay the process – such as requesting an appraisal on the property, even though one has already been obtained and presented,” he continued. “He has talked about not seeing the need to schedule hearings until August, despite already being more than six weeks late with hearings. “It is quite apparent that the Presiding Officer’s goal is to run out the clock so that this $36 million officer to privatize the facility is rescinded,” Levy added. “While such an occurrence would be a small victory for a small number of nursing home workers, it would be a devastating blow to the taxpayers and to hundreds of union workers who would face layoffs.” In an effort to eliminate an $8-10 million a year annual taxpayer subsidy to the county-run facility, and to help close a projected 2010-11 deficit of $150 million, Levy has proposed the sale of the 264-bed facility to a private entity with assurances that all patients and those receiving services through the facility will have continued care there. The five-year benefit to county taxpayers is estimated at $62 million. “Without the $20 million net from the sale, and without the annual cost avoidance of $8-10 million from operations at the facility, I will be developing a 2011 budget which avoids dramatic tax increases through layoffs, which could exceed 500,” said Levy.

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PORT JEFFERSON, NY -– This past Sunday marked the beginning of Uninsured Week in Suffolk County, an annual recognition of the societal and economic costs associated with not having adequate medical coverage.  In 2003, Suffolk County made the designation for this second week in March following the adoption of legislation authorized by Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket). The annual survey of more than 2,000 companies also found that 40% of small-business employees enrolled in individual health plans pay annual deductibles of $1,000 or more. That's almost twice the number who paid that much in 2007.”  This, while some health insurance companies have raised premiums by up to 39% in a single year.

“We begin this seventh Uninsured Week just as we have each and every year since 2003,” Viloria-Fisher said.  “With the number of uninsured increasing, health care costs rising and premium payments becoming unsustainable for too many Americans.  I join President Obama’s call to get health care reform ‘done’ to save tens of millions of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, neighbors and strangers from being one illness away from ruin.” 

In the 2003 Suffolk County legislation, it was noted that 14.6% of the United States population lacked health insurance; at that time the number of uninsured was 41.2 million.  By 2008, that number had jumped to 46.3 million, according to the United States Census Bureau.  With the “Great” Recession that began in 2007, it seems that the situation has only grown worse for million of Americans.  According to a report commissioned by Families USA, during 2007 and 2008 one out of three Americans under the age of 65 had lost health insurance at some point during that span.  That one out of three figure translated to 86.7 Million people who found themselves and their families unprotected from both minor and catastrophic illness and injury. 

President Obama Reminds us that every day 14,000 Americans wake up in the morning covered by a health insurance policy but go to bed that very same day without one.  Moreover, 5,000 Americans, many of whom have medical insurance, lose their homes every day due to a medically related bankruptcy.

Since 1999, the cost of health care premiums has increased by 131%.  In Viloria-Fisher’s 2003 legislation, it was cited that premiums had increased by 12.7% in 2002 from the previous year alone.  From 2008 to 2009 the average cost of a family plan rose from $12,680 to $13,375 per year. 

While premiums have steadily increased over the years, so too have member deductibles.  According to USA Today, “

“We cannot let another year go by without action.  No longer is the lack of health care coverage just the biggest heath related issue before the American people, but it is quickly becoming one of the biggest economic draws as well,” Viloria-Fisher concluded.  

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