PWM Has Adopted the VT Privatization Position

LWV PWM has Adopted a short-form of
LWV Vermont’s position on Privatization

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During a zoom consensus meeting, members came to consensus

Zoom Registration Link (click on word “link“)

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See the Education Presentation on PWM YouTube Channel (and deck here)

Read the Proposed Position and the Participant Guide

Agenda:

• 15-30 min Education on the position with Q&A
  

• 30-45 min Discussion of key issues
  

• 5-15 min Consensus summary

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Read the proposed position— and more (2 pp)

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Adopting this position (as other local NYS Leagues are doing) will encourage LWV of NYS to concur with our local Leagues — this will allow support of important state legislation

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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.

Additional reading on Privatization & Public Goods:

Read the Vermont Study Materials (100 pp Vermont Privatization Study Report table of contents)

Particularly consider perusing an additional 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 recent shorter articles about privatization and consolidation of healthcare

• LWVUS letter to FTC, DOJ, HHS about Private Equity harming US healthcare (21 pp)

• NYTimes “How Taxpayers Are Helping Health Insurers Make Even Bigger Profits” (7 pp)

• CBS News: “The Concierge Catch: Better Access for a Few Patients Disrupts Care for Many” (3 pp)

• PNHP: “Our Payments Their Profits: Quantifying Overpayments in Medicare Advantage Plans” (15 pp)

• Should you be interested in privatization and de-privatization of public goods beyond healthcare, the Vermont Study committee found two books particularly compelling

  • These Are the Plunderers: how private equity runs—and wrecks—America by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner

  • The Privatization of Everything: How the plunder of public goods transformed America and how we can fight back, by Donald Cohen & Allen Mikaelian

Participant Guide will be sent with Zoom confirmation. Be sure to register!