We Need Universal Health Care

Dear Editor;

Government funded universal health care — no copays, no premiums, no deductibles — would be as normal in New York State as it is in every other industrialized country in the world if it weren’t for the reluctance of public employee unions, such as the United Federation of Teachers, to support it.

This fact was underscored at a December 9th healthcare town hall meeting sponsored by New York State assembly member Dana Levenberg in Garrison, NY. Thanks to union resistance, the New York Health Act, which would implement universal health care across the state, has languished in the Senate Health Committee since 2019, even though it was overwhelmingly approved by the General Assembly several times and is believed to have more than enough votes to become law.

Although they say they support single-payer health care in theory, public union leaders argue that it diminishes their role in providing healthcare for their members. Actually, the exact opposite is true. Numerous reports show that public employe unions have consistently shifted more and more of the cost of health care to their members as a tradeoff for pay increases.

It would behoove the unions to drop their ambivalence toward the New York Health Act as President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill takes effect over the next two years. The new law, passed by Congress on July 4, 2025, imposes the largest ever reductions to health and welfare programs in U.S. history so that the government can fund tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. Health insurance firms are therefore likely to make up for the drop-off in government spending by increasing premiums, co-pays and deductibles on employer-based plans to three and four times the current amounts.

There are no alternatives.