Healthcare for All

Healthy and resourced communities make safe communities.

Healthcare is inadequate and unaffordable for millions of New Yorkers. If the federal government can’t or won’t do it, New York must lead the effort for universal, single-payer healthcare. Every New Yorker should have fully covered healthcare that includes dental, mental health, and long-term care without worrying about insurance companies dictating their health.

All New Yorkers have the right to safe, free, culturally competent health care. Decades of underinvestment in health services created the conditions for the coronavirus to spread most rapidly, the public health system to be overrun most quickly, the pain to be felt most deeply, New York to become the epicenter of the epicenter. We need to reverse the damage done to Medicaid in the last administration and provide universal health care—including for people often left behind. It’s critical that we combat health disparities and inequities, from food insecurity, to Black maternal morbidity to underfunding of hospitals in already underserved areas.

As Lieutenant Governor, I would:

• Pass universal healthcare disconnected from big insurance profiteering for all New Yorkers, including access for all immigrants and coverage for mental health services and abortion care.

• Create a large-scale mental health infrastructure across the state, including culturally competent outreach, neighborhood clinics, mobile units, and school services.

• Ensure immigrant neighbors are protected by passing #Coverage4All, creating a state-funded Essential Plan for all New Yorkers up to 200% of the federal poverty level who are currently excluded because of their immigration status.

• Invest in research and programs to support Black maternal health.

• Protect women's reproductive health and the right to choose.

• Build and fund state of the art public hospitals.

• Regulate and hold for-profit nursing homes accountable.

• Build strong elder care services.