“The New York Health Act was first
introduced in 1992,” said a speaker standing on a rock on Monday morning,
outside the First Presbyterian Church at 362 State St, Albany, NY 12210.
“How many more years do we have to wait?”
“Not one more!” replied the crowd of healthcare activists,
trade unionists, nurses, AIDS and environmental activists on hand for the die
in and rally.
A woman in a wheelchair was wearing a T shirt from 1990 from
a similar action.
“This will be my 27th arrest,” said another woman,
referring to her first with Father Berrigan.
By 10 am, hundreds of us had arrived from all over the state to
push the democratic supermajority to act on this landmark healthcare
legislation. With the filibuster
blocking progress in Washington, DC, states are our best chance to create meaningful
social policy and legislation.
“When we pass this, it will be a landmark for both the state
and the country.”
“Nobody out, everybody in,” people chanted.
YuLing
Koh Hsu welcomed Ken and I.
We
can't have racial & economic justice w/o single-payer, said YuLing.
Standing there in the sun, everyone had a story.
I have seen adjuncts at our college lose their health insurance
when they don’t get assigned classes; immigrants turned away from care, regular
people with their claims denied for treatments, and friends forced to start
co-fund me campaigns just to try to pay their bills. As if sickness is not enough, we are forced
to beg for help or navigate a Kafkaesque bureaucracy to try to get help.
Outside the church, I ran into Bob Lederer, a veteran of
ACT UP and Physicians for a National Health
Program - New York Metro Chapter, who has helped
get drugs into bodies of people around the planet for decades. I first met Bob when he was working on the AIDS Drugs for Africa Campaign, pushing Pharma to halt a lawsuit
in South Africa against the Medicines Act which allowed generic manufacture of
AIDS drugs there.
“I
think the COVID pandemic makes clear we have no healthcare in the US. The way
of paying it is flawed,” said Lederer. “It
puts profits over people over and over again, particularly people of color.”
Lederer paused. We talked about his work
with the AIDS drug assistance program and all the advocacy throughout the
years. “I was with ACT UP in 1990 when
we went to the capital to push for universal healthcare and Medicare for all.”
In New York, in 1998 he took over Senate
Majority Leader Bruno’s office to stop cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance
Program.
John Riley,
who was in that action, recalled:
Reflecting
on all those ACT UP actions, Lederer said: “This is a continuation of that
work. The horrendous mistreatment and
lack of treatment of people with AIDS is a window to the failure of the society
to care for everyone.”
As
he was speaking, activists begin chanting: “Healthcare is a right, Healthcare
is a right! ACTUP!”
“That
was our slogan,” said Lederer.
“Health
insurance is a lie” the crowd chanted.
“They
don’t care if people die.”
“Fight,
fight, fight, healthcare is a right!”
“Everybody
in. Nobody out!”
By
1030 AM, we started marching, demanding our lawmakers pass the New York Health Act this
legislative session! The Campaign for New York Health:
“We
are the closest we have ever been to winning universal healthcare for all New
Yorkers. New Yorkers voted out the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) with
candidates that ran on the NY Health Act! New Yorkers elected a Democratic supermajority.
New Yorkers pressured our legislators to pass the most progressive budget this
state has ever seen. This beautiful movement made history in March by
reintroducing the NY Health Act with majority support in the state legislature
to make healthcare a right in our state by establishing a universal
single-payer healthcare system. Everyone would have quality healthcare
regardless of age, employment, or immigration status. ALL healthcare would be
covered (including dental, mental healthcare, vision, long-term care and
prescriptions). It would be a huge step towards health justice in New York, and
around the country.”
The
action was organized to keep up the
pressure and make one massive final push before June 10 to demand the Senate
and Assembly Leaders to bring the New York Health Act to a vote THIS session.
Marching through Albany, the chants
and stories continued.
Members of the Poor People’s Campaign stopped
to speak about their campaign, blocking the street at Washington and Dove,
outside the offices of US Paul Tonko, calling for a congressional resolution to
end poverty, including single-payer healthcare.
Sitting listening to the speeches, a
man with t shirt calling for a halt on fracking, gave me a card:
“Protest License, expiration date,
never. This license has been issued in accordance with the First Amending of the
US constitution of the United State. Void
under no circumstances, Valid with or without government approval.”
The back of the card offered the United States Constitution.
“Amendment I, Freedom of Religion,
Press, Expression, ratified 12/15/1791.”
Standing there,
Richard Godfried, a member of the Assembly for more than 50 years, the
longest-serving member of the body and the sponsor of the bill, walked by.
Are we going to pass it this time, I asked.
Yes, his staffer confirmed.
If we don’t get it, shut it down, the
crowd began to scream, starting the die-in at Washington and Hawk street.
There
some of us theatrically died in on the concrete.
The streets were hot.
Still tomb stones and bodies filled
the streets.
‘Died from a broken heart,’ declared
my sign.
“Died from Preventable COVID deaths.”
“Died from political cowardice.”
“Died from Insurance Denied MRI”
“Couldn’t afford insulin.”
Laying there, a rally started across
the street.
Cynthia Nixon was there calling for
the passage of the bill.
Jabari Brisport noted we have the
votes to pass the Health Act:
An hour we stayed on the street, with no arrests.
Driving home, Ken and I talked through
it all.
Photography, direct action, listening to
the Rolling Stones and Nico, Siouxie and the Linda Lindaas, Victor Burgen and Umberto
Ecco and lists, attempting
to make sense of the infinite, looking at the streets of the city, its murals
and artists, hopes and aspirations.
“The list doesn’t destroy culture, it
creates it,” says Echo.
Hopefully the Senate and the Assembly
act and we can add this to our list of accomplishments.
Make some calls Ben, said Ken.
There are only a few days to go in the
session.
Hopefully, the bill does not die of
political cowardice.
After all, if not now, when?
Thanks to yesterday’s action, more pressure is building for Albany to pass universal, guaranteed healthcare. We were so proud to see hundreds of people rallying and marching for a system that includes every single New Yorker. We are especially grateful to the brave people who staged a ‘die-in,’ laying for nearly an hour on the hot pavement in front of the Capitol Building to symbolize the deadly nature of the status quo. Activists were joined by Care Champions in the state legislature who are doing everything they can to move this bill with special shoutouts to Senator Gustavo Rivera, Jessica Ramos, Jabari Brisport; Assemblymembers Richard Gottfried, Harvey Epstein, Jessica González-Rojas, Anna Kelles, Yuh-Line Niou, Demond Meeks and Zohran Mamdani; and special guest Cynthia Nixon.
The action got attention from mainstream media outlets like NY1, NY NOW, NNY360, WSKG, WAMC, WNYT Channel 13, CBS Albany, and The Hill.
We know the moment will come when we win healthcare for all, and we want that moment to be before the legislature ends the 2021 session on June 10th.
Here’s what you can do to keep up the pressure on Albany this week!
- Keep calling, emailing, and tweeting! Contact your elected officials and make sure they know it is past time to #PassNYHealth.
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