Purchase your in-person tickets to attend our Reception Celebrating Single-Payer Champions below!
For the first time since 2019, we will be hosting this annual gathering in-person to celebrate our work as a community. We’re very much looking forward to toasting our 2023 Single-Payer Champions with you all!
You can find more information about this reception Celebrating Single-Payer Champions, our honorees, and our work here.

If you are unable to attend in person, please purchase virtual tickets by clicking here!

Not able to join us in-person? Not to worry! We will be streaming the award portion of our program, live on Zoom. Simply purchase your virtual tickets below.

We understand that in-person doesn't work for everyone and we are so thankful that the ability to hold virtual programming has made our events much more accessible to folks who are far away, disabled, busy, or even just commitment-averse!

Our suggested tax-deductible donation for virtual attendance is $250 but - at any donation level - you are invited to join us on Zoom. We will email a Zoom link to all who contribute below the day before the celebration.
As an added bonus: Contributions of $250 and above include membership in national PNHP!

We are so grateful to have your support and presence in this movement!


Looking for info on attending in-person instead? Click here!

Universal Healthcare Legislative Advocacy Fellowship

The movement for health justice is reinvigorated by each new advocate rising up to demand equitable, comprehensive healthcare, and our organization is committed to nurturing the next generation of leaders.  Leadership development is essential for our movement for health equity!

In October 2022, PNHP-NY Metro launched the inaugural cohort of our Universal Healthcare Legislative Advocacy Fellowship (UHLAF).  UHLAF concluded this month with 26 fellows successfully completing the program, coming away with essential advocacy skills. 

It is imperative that we develop and nurture future advocate leaders from the healthcare field.  We designed this fellowship for students and providers who are relatively new to advocacy, focusing on fostering a variety of transferable advocacy and organizing skills, ranging from power mapping to meeting facilitation and storytelling.  Our Lobby Day in support of the New York Health Act and PNHP-NY Metro’s 2023 Legislative Package represented the capstone project for this fellowship: almost all the meetings this year were scheduled, coordinated, and facilitated by our developing advocates!

One of the baker’s dozen of meetings on Lobby Day this past March!

The fellowship consisted of monthly didactic training with topics ranging from Albany’s legislative structure to effective meeting facilitation. In addition, each month had have a short practical component, reviewed as a group the following month. Participants were expected to contribute an average of 3 hours per month from October 2022 - May 2023. 

Outline of 2022-23 Curriculum

October 6, 2022: Introduction to the NY Health Act, Getting to Know a District
November 3, 2022: Structure of New York State Legislature - How a Bill Passes
December 1, 2022: Facilitation Training
January 5, 2023: Powermapping
February 2, 2023: Lobbying Skills and Strategies
March 2, 2023: Storytelling as an Advocacy Tool, Social Media
March 14, 2023: Lobby Day 2022
April 6, 2023: Relational Organizing, Ladder of Engagement
May 4, 2023: Basebuilding

To continue this important work, we need your support!  We are facing a significant budget shortfall and your contribution - big or small - will help enable us to continue hosting programming like these fellowships.  Can you make a tax-deductible donation today?

Stay tuned for the application window for the 2023-24 cohort of this Fellowship - projected for August 2023!

PNHP relies on the generosity of our supporters and we would love your help in having the most successful silent auction and raffle yet! We will only be hosting the auction and raffle live and in-person this year, so don't forget to purchase tickets!

We'd like to include in our silent auction items such as gift certificates to restaurants and spas, seats to sporting events, theatre or concert tickets, the use of a vacation home or a getaway, wines or spirits, jewelry, beautiful items for the home, lessons, unique experiences and more!

If you would like to donate to the silent auction or raffle, please let us know here.

Purchase ad space in our digital program for your organization or use the space to send a special message to our 2023 honorees. The ads will be projected during the 2023 Reception Celebrating Single Payer Champions and distributed digitally to all supporters.

You can see a sample of a past Digital Journal here: www.pnhpnymetro.org/gala2019programbook

$800: FULL-PAGE AD

8.5 W x 11 H, min 300 dpi
Social Media Promotion*
1 Ticket Included

$500: HALF-PAGE AD

8.5 W x 5.5 H, min 300 dpi
Social Media Promotion*

$250: QUARTER-PAGE AD

2.75 W x 4.25 H, min 300dpi

*If you would like social media promotion, please provide a version of your artwork that is square, along with any copy you would like as part of a caption.

ARTWORK SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

Monday June 12, 2023 by 4:00pm

Send artwork or questions to Mandy: mandy@pnhpnymetro.org

Payment can be made by credit card below

or checks may be made payable to "PNHP-NY Metro" and mailed to our temporary pandemic mailing address:

PNHP-NY Metro
310 W. 86th St. #6B
New York, NY 10024

Samples from years past:

Wish our honorees well with messages of support and encouragement!

Purchase your tickets and find details below!
On Tuesday, June 20, 2023 the NY Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program will be hosting an in-person Celebratory Reception honoring our 2023 Single Payer Champions!  

Light Refreshments, Wine, Silent Auction and Raffle!

Over the last year, we have continued improving and expanding our organizing and programming efforts, including:

🎯 Planning and executing a Universal Healthcare Legislative Advocacy Fellowship to train a new generation of health workers and students to be leaders in single payer advocacy.
🎯 Increasing outreach to professional organizations and unions to promote the NY Health Act.
🎯 Monthly educational forums with focuses ranging from lessons to be learned from the Indian Health System to the current attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community and the resulting health challenges, especially to the transgender community.
🎯 Enhancing collaboration with movement partners to advance health justice initiatives.
🎯 Creating relationships with state and federal legislators to educate them about the dangerous attempts to privatize Medicare, allowing for public tax dollars to go straight into private investors’ pockets.

For the first time since 2019, we will be hosting this annual gathering in-person to celebrate our work as a community. We’re very much looking forward to toasting our 2023 Single-Payer Champions with you all!

Scroll down to purchase your in-person tickets below!

Please note that we are also offering VIRTUAL TICKETS for those who can't attend in-person. All who purchase virtual tickets will receive, by email, a livestream link to view the award presentations. If you cannot attend and would like to support, please use the virtual ticket option!

Our in-person silent auction and raffle will be returning this year as well, and we welcome your contributions! Click the button below for more information.

Purchase ad space in our Digital Program to feature your organization or to send a special message to an honoree! Examples, deadline for submission, and more info here.

To request a sponsored ticket please contact our Chapter Coordinator, Mandy Strenz at [email protected]

PNHP-NY Metro's 2023 Legislative Package

The legislation below represents the primary focuses of PNHP-NY Metro's lobbying efforts during the 2023 legislative session in New York.

Summary of Legislation: Take action by clicking on the bill names.

✅New York Health Act (2023 bill numbers pending) will establish a single-payer universal healthcare system in New York state that will guarantee comprehensive care for all residents and workers, regardless of employment, immigration status or ability to pay!

✅Reproductive Freedom & Equity Act (A00361A / S00348B) will establish a fund to cover the cost of abortion —as well as traveling expenses and childcare costs—for low-income New Yorkers and people coming from out of state. Has already passed the state senate!

✅Coverage 4 All (A3020 / S2237) will create a state-funded Essential Plan for ALL New Yorkers up to 200% of the federal poverty level, regardless of immigration status, by including undocumented immigrants in the state’s application for the 1332 waiver. Submit comments in support of Coverage 4 All.

✅Indigent Care Pool (2023 bill numbers pending) will redistribute public funding to protect true safety-net hospitals providing health care for low-income, people with disabilities, and communities of color.

✅End Medical Debt package: Ounce of Prevention Act (A6027 / S1366) requires all hospitals to use a uniform application form and policy and relates to distribution of funds from the general hospital indigent care pool, and Fair Medical Debt Reporting (A6275 / S4907) prohibits medical debt from being collected by a consumer reporting agency or included in a consumer report.

✅Fair Pay for Home Care would leave room in the budget for home health workers to make 150% of the minimum wage. New York has a home health care shortage and ensuring liveable wages for these highly skilled professionals is the first step to address this.

✅Protect Telemedicine Abortion Across State Lines (S1066A / A1079A) will shield clinicians and pharmacists throughout the state from: prosecution, loss of license or malpractice, and from subpoenas of their medical records for prescribing and sending of abortion pills to people who need them.

Help us make this year's gala the greatest yet! Volunteers help make the whole evening seamless and sensational.

There are many roles to take on such as greeting and checking guests in, tending the bar, photography, set up and breakdown, selling raffle tickets, tending to the silent auction and more!

Give us your name, email and phone below, and we will get in touch with you to discuss details! Thank you!  

PNHP relies on the generosity of our supporters and we would love your help in having the most successful silent auction yet!

We'd like to include in our silent auction items such as gift certificates to restaurants and spas, seats to sporting events, theatre or concert tickets, the use of a vacation home or a getaway, wines or spirits, jewelry, beautiful items for the home, lessons, unique experiences and more!

Please contact Cheryl Kunis if you would like to donate items: [email protected]

Purchase virtual ad space for your organization or use the space to send a special message to our honorees.  We will project the ad at our event as well as distribute it to all attendees in our report-back of the event.

$800: FULL-PAGE AD

2 Gala Tickets included

8.5 W x 11 H, min 300 dpi

$500: HALF-PAGE AD

1 Gala Ticket included

8.5 W x 5.5 H, min 300 dpi

$250: QUARTER-PAGE AD

2.75 W x 4.25 H, min 300dpi

ARTWORK SUBMISSION DEADLINE:

June 4, 2022 by 4:00pm

Send artwork or questions to Mandy: [email protected]

Checks may be made payable to "PNHP-NY Metro" and mailed to our temporary pandemic mailing address:

PNHP-NY Metro

310 W. 86th St. #6B

New York, NY 10024

2022 Virtual Lobby Day for Healthcare Workers, Residents, and Students

Tuesday, May 3rd on Zoom

We are excited to invite you to our annual lobby day for healthcare workers and students, which will take place on Tuesday, May 3rd.  This year, the legislature has heard demands from many different groups in the health justice movement - we continue to be inspired by the growing strength of this movement!  While health is a major focus, we need to keep up the pressure to impress upon legislators in Albany just how essential it is to pass the New York Health Act and other legislation that would improve the lives of so many New Yorkers.

To join us, please RSVP here.

Our 2022 Virtual Lobby Day Goals:

✅ Pressure existing co-sponsors to be more active in their support of the NY Health Act (A6058/S5474), and meeting with encouraging skeptical legislators to address their concerns make them supporters

✅ Promote the End Medical Debt package of bills organized by the Community Service Society to help protect patients from predatory billing

✅ Engage and empower the healthcare community to participate in lobbying efforts with their legislators

Events:

We have a short series of events leading up to Lobby Day to help us build power and momentum.  Feel free to join any or all of them!

🌟 Our virtual April educational forum on Tuesday, April 19 will share more information about both the NY Health Act and the End Medical Debt Campaign.  Sign up here.

🌟 Stories are often the heart of our advocacy.  To that end, we are hosting a 2-part storytelling training for healthcare workers on Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24 - if you’d like to hone your storytelling skills, apply for the training here.

🌟 We will be hosting a Lobby Skills training on Sunday, May 1st, to support participants to go into their lobby visits as prepared and powerful as possible.  To participate, indicate your interest on the Lobby Day RSVP form here.

Support the Movement Today:

❗If you are a physician or medical student, please sign on to our Doctors for NY Health Petition now.

❗Please consider supporting Lobby Day with a financial contribution here.  Our programming would not be possible without the support of our generous community!

Co-Sponsors of 2022 Lobby Day for Healthcare Workers, Residents, and Students:

Thank you to all participants and donors!

On October 10, 2021, we ran, rolled, and strolled through the rain in support of a universal single-payer healthcare system!

Thanks so much to the nearly seventy-five people who showed up in-person to participate in our first Care for Every Body 5K! It was wonderful to see longtime supporters as well as to meet people new to the movement - and to the city.

We would like to especially commend our Care for Every Body 5K fundraising champions!

• Friendraising Phenom Prize (participant who had the most individual supporters): Melissa Morrone
• Fundraising Phenom Prize (participant who raised the most): Peter Steinglass
• Team Fundraising Prize (team which raised the most): Students for a National Health Program at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

And a special shout out to Margaret Geary for being the fastest runner of the day, completing our loop in just over 17 minutes!

Care for Every Body T-SHIRTS are still available for order, as are our single-payer face masks!

We greatly appreciate everyone who participated in-person and remotely or donated - it would be impossible to continue our work without your generous support. Thanks to all the contributions from our participants and sponsors, and the hard work of our volunteers, we raised over $10,000 to continue the mission of the New York Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. 

More fun photos from the 5K can be found here!

Share your 5K photos! We would love to see them! You can upload them into this folder.

Learn more about the important work of our sponsors at the following links:

Brooklyn for Peace
Callen-Lorde
Campaign for New York Health
NY State Academy of Family Physicians
NY State Nurses Association
NY Statewide Senior Action Council
Physicians for a National Health Program

Below is the statement that PNHP - NY Metro is issuing today denouncing this roll-back of access to affordable healthcare, hard won by the union movement. A campaign is developing to demand that the Mayor block this destructive move. If you'd like to help, or have questions, please email [email protected].

Issued May 7, 2021

The New York Metro Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), as concerned healthcare providers and advocates, supports the many retired city employees who oppose New York City’s attempt to reduce the cost of its health benefits by moving its 245,000 retirees and their dependents from traditional public Medicare to a private Medicare Advantage plan. If carried out, this plan will limit retirees’ choice of physicians and hospitals, impose additional costs on them when they seek care, and vastly increase the hassles involved in finding and accessing care. And ultimately, it will not hold down the City’s costs. The Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations is moving to achieve an agreement with the Municipal Labor Committee (the coalition of city workers’ unions) to implement this new cutback in benefits starting this fall.

Only progress toward a universal, publicly-funded plan such as the New York Health Act here in our state, and a Medicare for All program nationally, can contain costs and assure that every resident can get the care they need. The City’s move from traditional public Medicare to restrictive, privatized Medicare Advantage is a step backwards.

Since its inception in 1965, Medicare has proven to be the most just and cost-efficient system we have to reimburse medical expenses.  By providing health insurance to everyone over age 65 and those with certain chronic illnesses or disabilities, Medicare covers everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, income, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.  As a federally-run program, it is a non-profit system that avoids the high administrative costs associated with private insurance companies (14-18% for insurance companies versus 2% for Medicare).  With the vast majority of physicians and hospitals accepting Medicare, patients have a wide range of choice.

Following limited efforts in the 1980s and 90s to open up Medicare to private insurers, in 2003 Congress created a new system of subsidized private insurance for Medicare beneficiaries which they labeled Medicare Advantage.  This is essentially a privatization of Medicare.  Because it replaces a public, low-overhead, nonprofit health insurance system with a private, high-overhead, for-profit system, it actually becomes a Medicare DIS-Advantage plan.  Since private insurance companies are profit-driven and have greater overhead costs, they need to take a variety of measures to reduce their spending on actual medical care (what they refer to as their “medical loss ratio”). 

Medicare Advantage plans pay physicians and hospitals less than traditional Medicare and make it more difficult, through prior authorization requirements and delayed payments, for them to provide care and receive their reimbursements. As a consequence, many Medicare providers refuse to join Medicare Advantage.  This leads to limited networks of providers in a service area, restricting patients’ choice of physician and hospital.  Medicare Advantage plans save money by requiring patient copays, thereby shifting costs onto patients and thus discouraging medical care visits.  These plans also require prior authorization by the insurer before many needed services can be delivered – delaying care, often in times of great medical need. They avoid paying for expensive services by denying recommended care, limiting networks to less costly providers, and forcing patients to go out of their network to get the care they need. The results can be costly and even deadly to patients.

Ultimately, Medicare Advantage is morally unacceptable. It replaces an equitable public system and its mission to serve the public and meet patients’ needs with a private system that sees medical costs as a loss that it tries, in a variety of harmful ways, to limit and reduce.  Profit has no place in health care. Instead, what has happened is that “Medicare Advantage is the most lucrative niche in the insurance market, as long as Congress wants to keep it as such” (Robinson, JAMA Int. Med., Sept 2017).  

Insurers recruit patients into Medicare Advantage plans through massive, misleading advertising campaigns, telling them that these plans give more benefits than traditional Medicare such as gym memberships and vision and dental coverage.  The companies especially seek those who are healthy and will cost them less. Many patients who sign up don’t understand that they will not have traditional Medicare. When they get sick and discover the cost and hassles of getting care, they flee back to traditional Medicare. If this plan is adopted, City retirees won’t have that option unless they pay their healthcare costs individually or through costly Medigap private insurance plans.

Instead of looking to the private sector to save money, New York City should be supporting actions that get at the root of the healthcare cost problem:  a market-driven financing system and a lack of regulation at the state and federal levels to set “reasonable prices” for healthcare services.

The City should recognize that a publicly-funded healthcare financing system, “Medicare for All” nationally and the New York Health Act in our state, is the only way to truly contain healthcare costs.  Billions now spent on wasteful administrative costs, advertising, and profits would be available to pay for healthcare for everyone. The NY Health Act would save NYC far more than the $600 million that the City claims the Medicare Advantage takeover would save annually, while improving everyone's health benefits rather than undermining them. Nationally, support for a single-payer system has never been stronger.  Here in New York, we have an unprecedented opportunity to pass the New York Health Act, which would guarantee access to healthcare for every New Yorker regardless of employment or immigration status. The bill has the support of a majority of the members of the State Legislature (and a supermajority in the Assembly). The Mayor and the New York City Council have expressed their support for the New York Health Act. The City must not encourage the privatization of public Medicare and must instead move forward and support a universal healthcare program that will successfully contain costs. Going backward to private insurance is not an acceptable way of providing healthcare for our people -- whether retired, employed, or unemployed.

SEE ALSO:

• PNHP financial analysis "City’s Plan Will Reduce Retiree Health Care by 24%" here.
• PNPH press release including statements from physicians here.

As New York finally begins to re-emerge from the lockdown, PNHP-NY Metro is ramping up the next phase of the fight for health justice. Universal, publicly-financed healthcare is increasingly on the political agenda. We’re asking for your help in moving toward victory. 

The perfect symbols of our advances are our three Single Payer and Health Justice Honorees. Each has long worked to educate, agitate and organize in their respective sectors -- poor people, labor unions, and the healthcare community. We are happy to unveil short videos by or about all three Honorees.

Our 2021 Single Payer Champions are:

• Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO
• Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival 
• Cheryl Kunis, MD, MS - Clinical Professor of Medicine Emerita and Special Lecturer, Columbia University; Adjunct Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; clinical nephrologist and bioethicist; Board member of PNHP - NY Metro

This year has shown unprecedented interest in and support for single payer at both the state and national levels. At this critical time, as we continue to organize, we’re asking you, our loyal supporters, to help keep our efforts strong!

Ways you can help grow this movement for health justice:

1. Making a one-time donation to support our work by visiting: https://www.pnhpnymetro.org/honorees2021_donate

2. Become a monthly sustainer to support our ongoing programming by visiting: https://www.pnhpnymetro.org/honorees2021_recurring

3. Buy a face mask! Shop here: www.bit.ly/m4amasks