Health Care for All New York Campaign Responds to New Federal Census Estimates of Number of Uninsured in New York

August 26, 2008

Contact: Tracy Munford, (212) 614-5538 (office), (646) 483-6804 (cell)

Members of the Health Care for All New York campaign responded with concern to the federal government's annual announcement today that more than 45 million Americans are living without health insurance. Health Care for All New York Campaign (HCFANY) is a statewide campaign of more than 50 organizations dedicated to winning affordable, comprehensive, high-quality health care for all New York State residents by 2010.

"According to the new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau there are 2.5 million men, women and children in New York who are just one health crisis away from financial ruin. They are not only forced to gamble with their financial well being but also with their health," said Bob Cohen, from HCFANY member Citizen Action New York. Over the next week, HCFANY will be further analyzing the data in the context of multi-year trends.

"On average, someone in America dies every 24 minutes because they were uninsured and could not get the medical care they need," said Adam Gurvitch, Director of Health Advocacy at the New York Immigration Coalition. "This census data reminds us we need health care for all, and we need it now."

"Surviving cancer or not can depend on whether you have health insurance or on how good that health coverage is," said Peter Slocum, Vice President of Advocacy, American Cancer Society of NY & NJ. "Those numbers announced today represent real people, and a cancer diagnosis in one of these families could mean loss of a home, loss of security and more importantly, loss of a loved one."

"This data shows that the number of people without affordable, quality health coverage is at crisis level, the Empire State's leaders need to show real health reform results," said HCFANY member Elisabeth Benjamin and Director of Healthcare Restructuring Initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York. "Recent CSS/Lake Research Partners polling shows that New Yorkers from all walks of life say that health care is their number one worry and should be the top priority for their government officials-New Yorkers even support raising taxes to solve the health crisis."

"The Children's Defense Fund--NY feels that while it is premature to rely on the data released today without comparing it to past years' numbers, we continue to hope for a decline in the number of uninsured children in New York," said Kinda Serafi, Senior Policy Associate, Children's Defense Fund-New York. Although, the number of uninsured children in the state for the last two years has remained stagnant at 384,000, we feel strongly that the upcoming expansion of Child Health Plus will help reduce the number of children without health coverage in New York."

"Reducing the number of uninsured in New York will take strong leadership from Governor Paterson's Partnership for Coverage process, bipartisan cooperation, and swift action from all sectors of our State," said Jason Angell, Director of the Center for Working Families. "Over the next few months, HCFANY is committed to advancing health reform by closely following the State's contract with the Urban Institute to model four New York State health coverage reform proposals."

HCFANY's comments on the Urban Institute's draft modeling instructions and up to the minute blogs about New York's health reform process can be found at: www.hcfany.org.

HCFANY's Steering Committee is comprised of the following organizations:
·        American Cancer Society
·        Center for Working Families
·        Children's Defense Fund-NY
·        Citizen Action/PPEF
·        Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
·        Communications Workers of America, District One
·        Community Service Society
·        Institute for Puerto Rican and Hispanic Elderly
·        Make the Road New York
·        Mergerwatch Project/Raising Women's Voices
·        Metro NY Health Care for All Campaign
·        New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage
·        New York Immigration Coalition
·        New York Association on Independent Living
·        New York Nurses Association
·        Opportunity Agenda
·        Western NY Health Care Campaign

HCFANY is a statewide campaign of more than 50 organizations dedicated to winning affordable, comprehensive, high-quality health care for all New York State residents by 2010.   Please visit our website at: www.hcfany.org or call Elisabeth Benjamin of the Community Service Society at 212-614-5461 for more information about the HCFANY Campaign.