On January 6, from 12:30 to 2:00 the LWV of PWM will hold a Consensus Meeting to decide if we concur with the two newly proposed positions on Healthcare and Financing of Healthcare.  At the direction of the 2019 State Convention, a LWV NYS Study Committee spent a year creating Study Materials and drafting the two proposed positions, updating them from the current positions, dating from 1993.

Two Education Meetings will prepare members for the decisions they will need to make about the changes to the current positions: what the changes are, what the research says to support these changes, and how to review the 50 pages of Study Materials (available at bit.ly/UpdateHealthcare). LWV NYS positions do not focus on specific legislation, but rather provide guidance and criteria to the League in determining what legislation it will advocate for or against.

The two Education Meetings — Wednesday, December 2, following the monthly meeting, and Thursday, December 3, beginning at 7:00pm — will have the same content and be led by members of the Study Committee who expect most of the meeting to be Q&A.  We encourage everyone to attend one of these to learn where our League stands on this important issue, what changes it is considering, and why.

For the Consensus Meeting, we need as many members as possible to attend: the new LWV NYS consensus process weights our two decisions more heavily as more of us participate. The structured zoom will use a consensus process to determine whether our league concurs with the new positions. For LWV NYS to adopt these updated positions, all 40 local leagues have been asked to hold consensus meetings in January or February, with reports due at the beginning of March.

Members will receive emails with how to access the Education Meetings and the Consensus Meeting.