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Budget, Education & City Services
Health Security Bill
WHEREAS, The businesses and residents of Community Board Five require the services of workers in the grocery, hotel, construction, building service and industrial laundry sector; and
WHEREAS, 70% of the firms in these sectors provide affordable health insurance coverage to their employees; and
WHEREAS, The 30% of the firms that do not provide coverage enjoy an unfair competitive cost advantage over those firms providing this socially important benefit; and
WHEREAS, The employees lacking private insurance must turn to the public sector (Medicaid, Family HealthPlus, Child HealthPlus, and the NYC Health and Hospitals Corp.) to help meet the healthcare needs of their families; and
WHEREAS, The city and our community have a vital interest in both reducing the burden on the public healthcare system and preventing a “race to the bottom” erosion of currently offered health insurance coverage in these sectors; and
WHEREAS, Extending healthcare coverage to employees in the 30% of firms not presently offering coverage would cover an estimated 150,000 New Yorkers (workers and dependents); and
WHEREAS, A broad coalition of trade associations and businesses in these sectors, labor unions, health and advocacy groups and community and faith organizations have organized to advocate city legislation to enable such coverage; and
WHEREAS, Intro 468-2004, the New York City Health Security Act, would require all employers in these sectors, except small firms as defined in the Act, to provide affordable health insurance coverage to their employees or pay a fee of equivalent cost to the city which would then provide the coverage; therefore be it
RESOLVED, While the Board would prefer to see Universal Health Care System, Community Board Five supports the New York City Health Security Act and urges the City Council to pass and the Mayor to approve this legislation.
The above resolution passed with a vote of 11 in favor, 9 opposed, 1 abstention.