LWV of New York has Adopted PWM’s short-form of
LWV Vermont’s position on Privatization
At Convention 2025, delegates voted overwhelmingly YAY
See the Education Presentation on PWM YouTube Channel (and deck here)
Read the Proposed Position and the Participant Guide
Read the Pro/Con Statement for adopting this position (4 pp)
Read the Rationale for adopting this position at Convention (1 page)
Read the 130 pp Vermont Privatization Study Report, particularly these 12 pages,
- Chapter 4: “Public Goods & Free Markets,” pp. 20-24
- Case Study D: “Hospital & Health Care Pricing Is Impenetrable — and Excessive Because It Applies Free-Market Principles,” pp. 116-124
Read the Shortened PWM text compared with longer VT text (2 pages)
Read the LWV US privatization postion to be updated (1 page)
By adopting this position LWV of NYS allows support of important state and local legislation and regulation
Other Relevant League Positions (useful for this concurrence)
What Fiduciary Duty Means in Healthcare & for Corporations
Applying Vermont Update to NYS — Read 4-page selection of bills, including these
NY Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act S4786A/Rivera, A08345A/AM Rajkumar — to direct the commissioner of health to enter into partnerships to increase competition, lower prices, and address shortages in the market for generic prescription drugs, to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for public and private purchasers, taxpayers, and consumers, and to increase patient access to affordable drugs.(California passed a similar bill in 2020 which appears poised to bring at-cost insulin to CA residents in 2025 : Google CalRx). Passed Senate 1/30/24,
Read PNHP 1-page summary of pharmaceutical profits in 2023
Read 1.5 page article on NYS bills introduced to lower drug prices
Prohibiting New For-Profit Nursing Homes S5269/A5842 Paulin Sponsor’s Justification
Prohibiting New For-Profit Hospices S9387/ A8472
Redeploying Excess Revenue for Insufficient Charity Care S7477/A7393
Reduce Cost of Medicaid Managed Care S7800/Rivera, A8470/Paulin —
NYS transitioned home care from a traditional fee-for-service model to a Medicaid managed care program or MLTC Plans in 2011. Under this model, New York State began paying for-profit insurance companies to manage and coordinate healthcare for several Medicaid services, in an attempt to improve care by coordinating between doctors and to save money by creating financial incentives to keep patients healthy and out of high-cost hospitals and nursing homes.
Instead, the majority of the services for-profit insurance companies currently provide are solely home care… “care coordination” is limited, and the insurance companies administrative costs and profit are a drain on the Medicaid system. …
In the past 3.75 years, New York State has given $5.9 billion to the 24 for-profit insurance companies managing home care in administrative costs and profit. In 2021 alone, the latest full year of data available, private insurance companies posted $722 million in profits, twice the national average.
Read Senator Rivera’s 3-page Opinion “Cutting Expensive Middle-Men Out of Home Care Will Save New York Billions”
Read 8-page Vermont Study Materials Case Study B: “How Connecticut Eliminated Managed Care in Medicaid,” pp.100-10
Additional reading on Privatization & Public Goods:
Read recent shorter articles about privatization and consolidation of healthcare
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LWVUS letter to FTC, DOJ, HHS about Private Equity harming US healthcare (21 pp)
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NYTimes “How Taxpayers Are Helping Health Insurers Make Even Bigger Profits” (7 pp)
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CBS News: “The Concierge Catch: Better Access for a Few Patients Disrupts Care for Many” (3 pp)
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PNHP: “Our Payments Their Profits: Quantifying Overpayments in Medicare Advantage Plans” (15 pp)
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Should you be interested in privatization and de-privatization of public goods beyond healthcare, the Vermont Study committee found two books particularly compelling — consider checking either out from your local public library:
The Privatization of Everything: How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back, by Allen Mikaelian and Donald Cohen
These Are the Plunderers: how private equity runs—and wrecks—America by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner
Consider exploring these sites:
