Listen: Medicare, Medicaid Meltdown at NYC Hospitals; Retirees Lead Fight Against Privatization
Got health care?
By Bob Hennelly
Mount Sinai Health System is facing backlash this week after it stopped accepting some new patients enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare and other publicly subsidized insurance plans—a move the New York State Nurses Association says could further strain safety-net hospitals and deny care to some of New York’s most vulnerable patients.
On this week’s show, Dr. Steve Auerbach, a retired U.S. Public Health Service captain, and Kelly Smith, a member of the Nonviolent Medicaid Army join us to discuss what Mount Sinai’s decision says about access to healthcare and the argument that healthcare should be a human right.
Should healthcare finally be considered a human right?
In our B block, Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, joins us to discuss the years-long legal and political battle to preserve and protect the traditional Medicare benefits city retirees were promised when they began their civil service careers. Pizzitola also talks about her organization’s massive $53 million copay settlement—and how the ongoing fight against private predatory Medicare Advantage plans has become part of the larger national debate about the privatization of Medicare.
Listen to the entire episode below: