Healthcare Coverage Act of 2005

The Legislative Commission on
Health Care Coverage Act of 2005
Proposed by NYS Assemblyman Richard
Gottfried and forty co-sponsors

The following piece of legislation would establish a joint Senate-Assembly bipartisan panel to, over a two-year period, look at ways to expand quality health care coverage to all New York residents. Click here for background

AN ACT creating the legislative commission on health coverage reform, and providing an appropriation therefore

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. Legislative findings and intent. The legislature finds and declares that millions of New Yorkers are unable to have full access to health care because they lack health coverage. The current system of health coverage undermines the health and financial security of those who lack coverage; imposes increasing financial burdens on employers, taxpayers and individuals who pay for health coverage; unfairly distributes the economic and social costs of health care; and undermines the financial viability of health care providers. The purpose of this legislation is to develop and evaluate options to move New York to a system that will provide or promote health coverage for all and help overcome the problems of the current system.

§ 2. A legislative commission on health coverage reform (referred to in this act as the “commission”) is hereby created to examine, evaluate and make recommendations concerning mechanisms for providing comprehensive, affordable, quality health coverage to all New Yorkers while controlling costs and ensuring freedom of choice for consumers. The commission shall have two committees, as follows:

(a) a committee on universal publicly financed health coverage; and

(b ) a committee on expanding traditional health coverage.

§ 3. 1. The commission shall consist of 14 members to be appointed as follows: 5 by the temporary president of the senate, 2 by the minority leader of the senate, 5 by the speaker of the assembly, and 2 by the minority leader of the assembly. Appointees shall be broadly representative of the geographic areas of the state and include representation from providers and consumers of health care, insurers, organized labor, business and local government. The temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the assembly shall each designate a co-chair of the commission from among its members, who shall jointly chair the commission.

2. The co-chair designated by the temporary president of the senate shall appoint the members and chair of the committee on expanding traditional health coverage. The co-chair designated by the speaker of the assembly shall appoint the members and chair of the committee on publicly financed health coverage. The members and chairs of the committees shall be appointed from among the members of the commission.

3. Vacancies in the membership of the commission and among its officers shall be filled in the manner provided for original appointments.

§ 4. 1. The committee on publicly financed health coverage shall examine and propose one or more proposals for providing universal health coverage through publicly-sponsored health coverage financed entirely or predominantly through broad-based public financing. These proposals shall assure that every state resident receives a comprehensive set of benefits determined by public policy, regardless of employment status. Coverage and benefits shall not be means-tested, nor shall benefits impose more than minimal cost-sharing on individual consumers. However, this shall not preclude progressively-graduated financing. Publicly financed health coverage models may include a single-payer system similar to traditional medicare, a system using multiple private carriers similar to child health plus or family health plus, so-called “pay or play” models, or other systems. Proposals for publicly funded health coverage may also include appropriate cost-containment elements, including control of major health care provider capital expenditures. Policy making for the system as a whole and accountability shall reside with state government.

2. The committee on expanding traditional health coverage shall examine and propose one or more proposals for providing or promoting universal health coverage through variations on existing private and public health coverage mechanisms. These proposals may include, but not be limited, to pooling arrangements, mandates, subsidies, incentives, tax mechanisms, cost-shifting to consumers, limitations on benefits, health savings accounts, and cost-containment elements, including control of major health care provider capital expenditures.

3. Both committees shall consider the effect of proposals on:

(a) advancing the goal of universal health coverage;

(b) controlling the cost of health coverage and health care;

(d) the level and distribution of costs as a barrier to health coverage or health care;

(e) employers and employment.

(f) the special concerns of small businesses; the self-employed and sole-proprietors; collective bargaining arrangements; people with multiple, seasonal or sporadic employment; low-income households; and people who are unemployed, under-employed or unable to work; and

(g) the economic viability of hospitals, community health centers, health care professionals, and other health care providers.

§ 5. (a) Each committee shall have an advisory board appointed by the chair of the committee. Members of the advisory boards shall be representative of or advocates for health care consumers, health care providers and professionals, organized labor (both health-related and other), business, and insurers, as well as health policy analysts and academic experts.

(b) Each committee shall solicit proposals appropriate to the committee’s scope from the general public; members, representatives of or advocates for various stakeholders in the health care and health coverage systems; and academic or other experts. A proposals submitted to the committees shall include a statement demonstrating the expected costs and impacts of the proposal and its ability to meet the goals and objectives of this act, including the criteria in section four of this act.

§ 6. 1. The commission shall develop a timetable for its work, including the work of the committees.

2. Each committee shall hold public hearings in various regions of the state prior to formulating its proposals, and shall submit a report on its proposals to the commission.

3. The commission shall hold a series of public hearings in various regions of the state on the reports of the committees.

4. The commission shall have one or more independent analyses done on the proposals developed by each committee. The analysis shall assess and compare the expected costs and impacts of each proposal and their ability to meet the goals and objectives of this act, including the criteria in section four of this act. The commission shall contract with one or more independent not-for-profit entities to conduct the analyses.

5. The commission shall submit a report to the legislature on universal health coverage, including any recommendations concerning mechanisms for providing comprehensive, affordable, quality health coverage to all New Yorkers while controlling costs and ensuring freedom of choice for consumers. The report shall include the reports of the committees and the independent analysis.

§ 7. 1. The commission may employ and at pleasure remove such personnel as it may deem necessary for the performance of its functions and fix their compensation within the amounts available therefor.

2. The commission shall have all the powers of a legislative committee under the legislative law.

3. The members of the commission shall receive no compensation for their services, but shall be allowed their actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.

4. No member, officer or employee of the commission shall be disqualified from holding any other public office or employment, nor shall he or she forfeit any such office or employment by reason of appointment hereunder, notwithstanding the provisions of any general, special or local law, ordinance or charter.

5. To the maximum extent feasible, the commission shall be entitled to request and receive and shall utilize and be provided with such facilities, resources, and data of any court, department, division, board, bureau, commission, or agency of the state or any political subdivision thereof, including the legislature, as it may reasonably request to carry out properly its powers and duties.

6. The commission is authorized and empowered to enter into any agreements and to do and perform any acts that may be reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes and objectives of this act.

7. The commission may accept grants or other assistance from any government agency or not-for-profit entity to support or assist it in carrying out its responsibilities.

§ 8. The sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000), or so much thereof as may be necessary is hereby appropriated to the commission to pay the expenses incurred, including personal service, in carrying out the provisions of this act. Such moneys shall be payable out of the state treasury in the general fund to the credit of the state purposes account after audit by and on the warrant of the comptroller upon vouchers certified or approved by the co-chairs of the commission as prescribed by law. Funds appropriated under this section shall be evenly distributed to each committee, less amounts reserved for general commission expenditures.

§ 9. This act shall take effect immediately. The commission shall expire six months after submission of the commission’s report under section six of this act.