$80B was RAND's estimated savings over *10 years.* That's about 2% of total health spending. It's based on multiple dubious assumptions, including the idea that health providers, Albany's most formidable lobbying force, will accept slower growth in payments.
RAND's first-year savings estimate was $2B or less than 1%, which is negligible given the enormous uncertainty involved in forecasting health care spending.
As for what share of New Yorkers would hypothetically save money under single-payer, RAND gave several numbers, none of which was close to 98%.
Its baseline estimate was 65%, and came with this crucial caveat:
In other words, the theoretically savings for two-thirds of New Yorkers would depend almost entirely on the other third being forced to pay more -- almost one-fifth of their income at the high end.
In more 3,200 pages of Fauci emails from January through June 2020, just released under FOIA, there is one reference to a communication between him and Gov. Cuomo ... buzzfeednews.com/article/natali…
On 3/4/20, Fauci wrote to a fellow NIH official:
"I received a text from Governor Cuomo of NY State and he wants me to come up to NYC for a Press Conference with his Health Commissioner, Howard Zuycker [sic]."
Fauci was copied on 4/6 and 4/8 emails about media strategy that listed Cuomo as one of several governors who might be helpful. assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2079…
Catching up to this @GormleyAlbany story about vacancy rates in New York nursing homes, which are three times higher than normal -- and have barely budged since last May. newsday.com/news/region-st…
When I first looked at nursing home vacancy last June, it had soared to 21% from a typical level of 8%. empirecenter.org/publications/n…
The share of empty nursing homes beds has stayed close to 21% ever since -- rising to a high of almost 24% in January.
Lawmakers in Albany are again advancing the NY Health Act, which would abolish private health insurance and herd all NYers into a state-run “single payer” plan financed with massive tax hikes.
#1: It’s a leap of faith
Instead of modeling their plan on an existing system, the authors propose a 100% tax-funded blanket health plan with no private alternatives allowed. Nothing quite like it has ever been tried before—in the U.S. or anywhere else.
#2: It’s unnecessarily disruptive
NY's uninsured population has dropped to a historic low of about 1M, many of whom are eligible for existing programs. The state could focus on covering that group without changing things for everyone else.
Even as Cuomo & the Legislature ramped up overall spending by 10%, they *cut* the operating allocation for NY's public health lab, the Wadsworth Center, by 1/3. empirecenter.org/publications/n…
Wadsworth played a key role in the state's pandemic response, including quickly developing an alternative COVID test last February when the CDC's test failed. lohud.com/story/news/hea…
The budget reported includes $750 million in capital funding for a new Wadsworth facility in Albany. bizjournals.com/albany/news/20…