Brooklyn's Progress
March 2004

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce was one of many organizations that signed on to an open letter to Governor Pataki, Senator Majority Leader Bruno and Assembly Speaker Silver, about proposed changes in Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus.  The letter appeared recently in several local newspapers.

New York’s hard working families need and deserve health insurance, and over the past several years New York’s leaders have worked together to help many get it.  Thanks to your support of the Child Health Plus program (CHPlus), there are over 200,000 fewer uninsured children than there were just four years ago.  Through Family Health Plus (FHPlus), over 360,000 adults have the health insurance they need to stay healthy and working.  The Governor’s budget proposals, however, threaten to reverse this progress and add to the ranks of 3 million New Yorkers who are still uninsured.

Health insurance programs for low-income working people will be destabilized

Today, most people apply for and renew their health insurance near their homes or places of work, at local clinics, community organizations and other convenient locations.  That will change under the Governor’s proposal.  Adults will have to go to a welfare or Medicaid office to apply for health insurance.  These offices are often far away and rarely have weekend or evening hours.  Working people will have to take time away from their jobs to apply for insurance.  Other proposed changes to the FHPlus program will increase red tape and make it harder for people to get and keep health insurance.  These budget proposals will save little money for the State and will threaten the viability of health insurance programs for low-income working people.

Working people will be punished for the actions of their employers.

Under the Governor’s proposal, families who lose their health insurance will have to wait for a year before applying for FHPlus.  Others won’t be able to apply at all if they work for a company with more than 50 employees, even if their employer doesn’t offer health insurance.  Why punish hard working New Yorkers because some employers don’t provide affordable health insurance to their workers?

The ranks of New York’s uninsured will increase.

If these cuts are enacted, some families with insurance coverage will lose it; others who need coverage won’t be able to apply.  Although the number of uninsured New Yorkers is increasing, it is projected that FHPlus enrollment will decrease due to these proposed changes.  More than 50,000 people will lose their FHPlus coverage in the next year alone.  The number of uninsured low-income workers will increase dramatically.

The financial strain on health care providers will intensify.

New Yorkers excluded from CHPlus and FHPlus will wind up among the uninsured and seek care from hospitals, community health centers and other providers.  These organizations are already straining under the burden of caring for the growing number of uninsured patients.

On behalf of all New Yorkers, our organizations urge New York’s leaders to reject these cutbacks.  When Governor Pataki signed the law creating FHPlus he said the program would “afford up to one million New Yorkers, many who work hard to provide a better life for their families, with the health insurance they need and deserve.”  He was right.  New York’s public health insurance programs work.  And New York’s families still need them - today more than ever.