04/21/2026
5/7 "Health Care Financing & the New York Health Act"
Health Care Financing & the New York Health Act Presentation
Thursday, May 7, 6:00pm
@ Tompkins County Public Library, Borg Warner Room, 101 E Green St, Ithaca NY
With Dr. Rosemary Batt, the Alice Hanson Cook Professor at the Cornell University school of Industrial and Labor Relations; Marguerite Uphoff, retired pediatrician; Susan Beckley, small business owner and a proponent of the New York Health Act;
Richard Gottfried, retired NYS Assembly member and author of the New York Health Act. The talk is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Tompkins County.
Why do we pay 2 to 4 times as much for medications in the US than in Canada?
Is the American Health Care system broken? Why is it hard to find a primary care physician?
Why do you have to wait weeks to get an appointment? Why do you get sent to an urgent care clinic or the ER when you are sick instead of seeing your primary care physician?
Why are infant mortality rates and maternal mortality rates significantly higher in the US than in Canada or other wealthy countries? (Canada 3.74, New York State 4.1, Cortland County 8.5, Cayuga County 8.6, Tompkins County 6.0 --2024 or 2025)
The United States spends nearly twice what Canada and Europe and other wealthy countries spend per capita on health care--$14,800 in the US vs $7000-$9000 in Canada and Europe. Andi n those countries all citizens have comprehensive health care, including long term care. And in spite of the high cost of healthcare in the United States, we have shorter life expectancy.
Why do all citizens in every other wealthy country have access to health care but in the United States, 27 million Americans do not have health insurance? The increasingly high cost of health insurance with high deductibles, high copays and out-of-network costs leave millions of Americans in debt and hesitant to use health care. Medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the US-- 62% of consumer bankruptcy.
Dozens of hospitals in rural Upstate New York are at risk of closing. Medicaid and Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals are at rates that are not sufficient to keep rural hospitals open and draw doctors to practice. Rural hospitals with more uninsured patients provide care for which they are not reimbursed. Many rural New York hospitals have closed or are closing some services. Cayuga Medical Center no longer admits children. Children who require hospitalization are sent to Syracuse or Rochester.
Content copied from post on the TC Human Services List Serve on 4/21/26 by League of Women Voters Tompkins County
