Our League recommends LWV US Program Planning Committee puts the “Proposal for Concurrence at LWVUS Convention with Language Excerpted from the 2021 LWVNYS Positions on Healthcare and Healthcare Financing” on the agenda for discussion and voting at the 2022 LWVUS Convention.
What our PWM League has done, is doing
Our healthcare chair served on the LWVNYS HealthCare Update Committee (HCUC) — a committee of league members from across NYS that was formed after the 2019 LWVNYS Convention.
The HCUC spent almost 18 months studying healthcare, creating a 50-page package of “Study Materials,” and two new positions to offer NYS state and local leagues. Between December 2020 and March 2021, the HCUC presented educational programs on the new positions to leagues across New York and also designed materials to guide their consensus/concurrence process.
In April 2021, the LWVNYS voted to adopt the new positions on Healthcare and Financing of Healthcare, after 31 local leagues reported reaching consensus (31 supported the new Healthcare position, 30 supported the new Healthcare Financing position). The new positions replaced positions that had been adopted in 1991.
During the summer and fall of 2021, encouraged by league members from outside NYS, we began working on offering a concurrence at the LWVUS 2022 Convention.
Side note: LWVNYS, as a style sheet issue, spells “healthcare” as one word, in line with evolving public usage, while LWVUS spells it as two words. The HCUC assumes, if the concurrence is adopted at 2022 Convention, that LWVUS will adjust any inconsistencies to conform to the LWVUS style sheet.
Three Ways Your League Can Support this Concurrence
1. Get on the agenda of your league to advocate for supporting this concurrence:
This means distributing (in advance) the one-page concurrence statement (link here) and asking for time on the agenda to explain
Motion: “LWV of PWM recommends LWV US Program Planning Committee puts the “Proposal for Concurrence at LWVUS Convention with Language Excerpted from the 2021 LWVNYS Positions on Healthcare and Healthcare Financing” on the agenda for discussion and voting at the 2022 LWVUS Convention.”
2. Please use this specific language on the LWVUS Program Planning Report Form
If your league decides to recommend this concurrence to the national league, we request you use the specific language below so that the LWVUS Program Planning knows exactly what you are recommending in the fewer than 300 words allotted to answering “Question 7: Would you like to recommend another program item, in addition to the Campaign for Making Democracy Work ®? (Yes/No).
We support putting the “Proposal for Concurrence at LWVUS Convention: Adding Language Excerpted from the 2021 LWVNYS Positions on Healthcare and Healthcare Financing” on the agenda for discussion and voting.
Concurring with this LWVNYS language at Convention will update the LWVUS Health Care Position without requiring any outlay of resources by either local Leagues or LWVUS. It will support our DEI efforts by allowing Leagues to support improvements to our health care system that will benefit poor, BIPOC, rural, and other socially and economically disadvantaged residents. Access to quality health care is a concern for a majority of Americans. (PWM website page link)
3. PLEASE let us know if we can add your name to the list of leagues co-sponsoring this concurrence, by emailing LWV.NYS.Healthcare.Update@gmail.com
Note: Each league may complete the LWVUS PP survey once (online only) and, once started, the survey cannot be edited and it may time out. A pdf version of the survey (for planning your answers) is here (find practical advice from the 2020 (old) instructions: here). The link to the 2022 online survey is here. The deadline for submission is March 1, 2022. Questions on the survey: progplan@lwv.org. More about LWV.org 2021-22 Program Planning is here.
Communications to US Leagues and NYS Leagues
This December 2021 email announced the proposed concurrence to leagues across the US. Perhaps Laura’s email?
Find Out More About the Proposed Concurrence: Useful Links
The Concurrence Statement is linked here.
All concurrences offer a “concurrence statement,” the language that will become the new position or that will amend a current position. Current LWVUS positions can be revised or rewritten (have their wording changed) only after nationwide study and consensus across 50 state leagues and DC league. Concurrence can add language to a US position (but not change existing language).
To update the LWVUS Health Care position (adopted in 1993), this concurrence statement offers excerpts from the two NYS positions to add to the current US position. The proposed concurrence statement does not include either NYS language that is redundant to the current US position or language focused particularly on NYS. It also generalizes references to NYS, New York residents, and state programs, making the references appropriate for a national position.
The HCUC Study Materials are linked here
Because the HCUC was charged to review the LWVNYS Healthcare Financing position, in light of single-payer legislation then under consideration by the New York legislature, the HCUC included in the study materials one potential example of a single-payer system operating at the state level, the New York Health Act (NYHA). HCUC noted that NYHA is not the only model of a single-payer system and member approval of the proposed position does not mandate support of the NYHA, or any specific piece of legislation.
Positions set out general principles by which to evaluate legislation; they don’t mandate support for bills.
After study, the HCUC decided that
While the example used is often the NYHA, because that was the example HCUC was charged to use, HCUC findings can be generalized to other single-payer programs with similar characteristics — the characteristics the LWVUS and LWVNYS list in their goals: universal, equitable access, comprehensive, financed by general taxes, likely to reduce healthcare disparities, and affordable for everyone.
Pro/Con Considerations for the Proposed Concurrence — linked here
2021 LWVNYS HC Positions
1993 LWVUS HC Position (current)
Other state league HC positions: VT, MA, NM…
HCR4US Toolkit
Additional materials will be added to this page over the next several months.
Current leagues that have signed on to support this concurrence listed here
NYS Leagues
Leagues from Other States
For more information, email: LWV.NYS.Healthcare.Update@gmail.com