Preventing aching backs and most physical woes demands that we stand up every 20 minutes or so and move around. For some, age-related problems and waning strength make that difficult or impossible. Ah, but these aging symptoms need far more general understanding. However, to reduce the sitting time this week, I did a kind of stream-of-consciousness column that didn’t require poring over reference material. It was almost finished when I remembered to get up—again—and when I turned on the news, I learned that former Mayor Ed Koch had departed this life.

So much for the column just written. I worried when last night’s news said our three-term former mayor was on a respirator in New York Presbyterian’s intensive care unit. The reporter also recalled the 88-year-old’s last decade of major illnesses: a stroke, a heart attack and heart and prostate surgeries. That’s a lot, but not uncommon at that age.

Koch was famous for asking “How’m I doin’?” Now I wish that in recent years, he had talked about how he was really doin’ with these critical, often age-related diseases. It would have helped raise awareness and find better ways to prevent and treat them. And above all, it would have given the public at large more understanding and maybe more empathy for what it’s like to be old, even for someone as renowned, active and advantaged as Ed Koch.

We need more old people out there in the public eye. Koch was a regular on an NY1 weekly political panel; he was a player; he went every day to his law office, maybe even by subway or bus. But I doubt that the new documentary Koch says much about his late years.

His late years have been largely ignored in the lengthy obituaries that have appeared, which is something I am really trying to change. Another glaring example of this type of oversight was in the tributes to Pauline “Dear Abby” Phillips, whose last ten years of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease got little more than a mention. Ten years! Who knew? Obits mentioned she’d supported the civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights movements. But has her family worked for more research for the still-underfunded brain-failure cause?

Are they protesting the really offensive Betty White NBC sitcoms depicting elders as dirty old women and dirty old men playing disgusting pranks on young people? Is anyone? In one relatively mild “prank,” two elder women asked young men on the street to settle the argument of who’s the best kisser. The young men quickly backed away and burst out laughing.

Real-life elders often try to help young people, but that’s not something the media ever show. Even the president’s grandmother got little mention at the Inaugural ceremony, although many approving comments were made about the Obamas’ daughters standing next to her. Nothing was said about the need for close grandparents. These are some reasons why I so often write about elder inequities, which some say I do too often. In truth, it is not done often enough.

And so we will miss you, Ed Koch, and we’ll miss seeing an old face on the tube, and hearing an old voice of experience (not that many of us left). And you did love New York, and New York is a better place for it. And we are grateful.

dewingbetter@aol.com

It’s been an exhausting couple of weeks. You were evacuated. You lost power – in all senses of the word – for so long that you debated eating your pumpkin-scented candle and only source of light or heat. You saw cars floating by and started imagining yourself with the Waterworld-inspired cornrows of Spring Break 1996. You never wanted to go back there. Ever.

And then at last the sun came out, the water receded, electricity was restored, and, if you were lucky, not too much damage was done. But then it was time to vote! You saw Facebook friends battling Facebook friends, partisan on-lines being drawn. It got ugly.

Now your fingers are tired and you have a hollow feeling inside that even the largest Obama-shaped-pancake-face won’t fill.

How to post in a post-Hurricane Election world.

1. Don’t rush it.
2. The right tweet/photo/status will present itself in time, but you can’t force it.
3. Put your filter back on because the rapid fire sharing of news and experiences that may have made you a Hurricane Sandy star will not do the same moving forward.
4. Imagine, for example, if you treated the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday with the same level of urgency and importance: “The turkey JUST hit the table, but the mashed potatoes aren’t ready, and we’re all out of serving spoons. #DIDSOMEONEFORGETTHECRANBERRYSAUCE?”
5. Nobody wants to see, or read, that.
6. Instead, take a few breaths. Go ahead and eat your turkey. Enjoy it.
7. Take a photo if you must, but – like the bird itself, or a freshly baked pie – let it sit for a bit before posting. Otherwise, if you cut it too soon, all those delicious juices and glorious pie gooeyness will spill out into the dish and be lost forever.
8. Nobody wants a hollow, goo-less liquid mess of a pie for a Facebook friend. And nobody wants to follow your dry turkey ass on Twitter. Regain your composure. Let it cool, and chew carefully so you don’t bite your tongue.
9. Now, as for the election and those of you who voted on the “losing” side, do a few angry push ups and let it go.
10. Hell, “Like” some cute pictures of Bo already and be the bigger (wo)man.
11. If you start to swell up with the desire to post an angry retaliation comment, try and look on the bright side – at least now Mitt Romney can finally blink.
12. As for Sandy, if you were in the blasé bunch posting pictures of yourselves outside chugging beers in Battery Park until Sandy o’clock, tweeting “Hurricane Blackout here I – ” until you lost power and ate nothing but your unrefrigerated words for the next five days, now would be a good time to start posting some links to Red Cross relief efforts.
13. Make amends with the big guys (at the weather station) before the next nor’easter rolls in.
14. The hidden benefit of taking some time is that you may even give the illusion, whether it’s true or not, that you do in fact have a life.
15. So, go for a walk or something. Read anything that doesn’t require charging, downloading, or sharing. If you do feel the need to share, do it in person. You’ll be amazed at how quickly – or alarmingly slowly – live human interaction comes back to you.
16. Whatever you do, do not post about that empty feeling in the post-Hurricane Election social media lull. That is, unless you’re under the age of fifteen – in that case, convince your parents to take that Thanksgiving Caribbean Cruise, get yourself some cornrows, and start posting!

The book is called Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity, released by Potomac Books this summer, and it’s Reifowitz’s study of the way Obama has used his language to construct an alternate narrative of America.

“The book is really about Obama’s attempt to change or transform our national identity, to really make it live up to our true values, which go back to the Declaration of Independence,” Reifowitz said. “It’s something we haven’t always lived up to, but something we’ve tried to strive toward.”

Reifowitz argues that the way Obama speaks forges a feeling of inclusiveness that other presidents and prominent people before him have not been able to achieve. To research the idea, he listened to every recorded speech that Obama has made throughout his career, first as a lawyer and then as a senator, and read all of his published books, papers and written speeches. What he found was that Obama has been using similar rhetoric throughout his professional life, speaking in a way that emphasizes the unity of the American population rather than the factors that divide.

“Obama is focused on equality,” Reifowitz said. “He’s speaking about American identity in ways that make groups that have historically been excluded feel a sense of inclusion.”
Reifowitz devotes chapters of the book to expounding on how Obama’s word choices reinforce that idea of a diverse but unified America. As a history professor at SUNY’s Empire State College, Reifowitz has experience studying how large communities are formed and identify themselves.

“I’ve been studying multiethnic societies like ours for a really long time,” he said. His first book was on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which he said has many similarities to our current country’s makeup. “Multiethnic societies create a sense of unity among people who aren’t from the same ancestral tribe.”

Reifowitz said that a society valuing a collective identity that’s not based on race or ancestry works against the tendency to value one’s own tribe over others, which historically has been the impetus for violent clashes and horrific policies like those of Nazi Germany.

In the book, Reifowitz argues that Obama has tried to move the country between the extremes that have at various points been the dominant cultural forces, movements that promote separation and inhibit inclusion. The obvious example of this is the systemic racism the U.S. has struggled to eradicate, but Reifowitz said that the radical multiculturalism of the 1980s and ’90s went in the opposite but just as exclusionary direction.

The book also presents some concrete examples of Obama’s policy mirroring his speech.

“[Obama] pushed forward some policies that have worked toward a sense of connectedness and inclusion,” Reifowitz said. “His attempt to bring in the children of illegal immigrants who have the opportunity to apply for a work visa—it’s not just the policy, it’s the way he talks bout them. He says they’re Americans, they came here when they were 4 or 5 years old, they don’t know any other home. His move to support gay marriage is another area where he pushes for inclusion.”

But Reifowitz emphasizes that it’s not just in his liberal or Democratic polices that Obama’s rhetoric signals a call to unite Americans—it’s in everything he does.

“On an overall perspective, it’s not an easy thing to get a really diverse population like America to feel itself as one community,” Reifowitz said. “We’re not born with an American flag stamped on our head. We’ve got to teach each other. We teach our child that some kid in Idaho or Ohio is part of one American community.”

Via Wiki Commons.

I first heard that “Isaac may cause some devastation” over a week ago and it was startling. My son, like most toddlers, is capable of creating a little mayhem, but I was certain he was not planning anything to concern the national media.

Storm predictions indicate his name won’t become synonymous with massive death and destruction—this year. So “Isaac” will almost stay in the rotation of Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane names, and get another crack at weather infamy sometime in 2018, when my son will be 8.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher and editor of The Nation, wrote soon after her namesake hurricane of 2005 that “it has been eerie hearing and reading my name all over the news.”

At the end of the year, Time asked her about any “personal consequences” to being an outspoken liberal commentator, and the only thing she mentioned was the “very personal and mean way” Rush Limbaugh called the deadly event “Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel.” The cruel nickname persists to this day in the rightwing blogosphere.

And although “Barry” Obama could suffer the same fate next year, conservative leaders are also vulnerable. Chris Christie and Karl Rove escaped making big hurricane news this year, but their names will be back in the hopper with my son in 2018. William Kristol lives with the daunting double whammy of a possible Hurricane William this year and then Bill in 2015.

The United Nations’ all-powerful and historically sexist naming body (female hurricane names were used exclusively until 1979), the World Meteorological Organization, tends to like short names, but nevertheless Paul Ryan. John Boehner, and Mitt Romney are safe from being connected with devastation, at least until a hurricane starting with P, J or M is so catastrophic that the name is retired and replaced.

As for the name Katrina, nameberry.com, a popular site for expectant parents, says simply “the hurricane blew this one out of the realm of possibility.” The name’s popularity dropped precipitously starting in 2006 but surprisingly it wasn’t until last year that it fell out of the top 1,000 of female US names, according to the Social Security Administration

To quote many politicians, it doesn’t have to be this way. Hurricanes and tropical storms do need names since they move rapidly and are often active simultaneously, but there’s no reason to connect them to hundreds of millions of real people.

The World Meteorological gods could opt for things like Greek letters, alpha, beta, etc., but the better choice would be to take fictional villains. Hollywood, comics and other pop culture sources provide an endless supply. Spider-Man alone is a gold mine of names, my favorites being Boomerang, Hammerhead, Jackal and Carnage. Simon is a real name that should be used since Simons already share with the villains of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Underdog (Legree and Bar Sinister). Underdog also gives us Riff Raff.

Bane, Batman’s nemesis, is another good one, although that one should wait for whenever Romney leaves active politics, perhaps as late as 2021. That would get Bill Kristol off the hook.

Josh Rogers is a NYPress.com columnist. Follow him @joshrogersnyc.

A realistic way to disarm the electoral college, so every voter has a voice

New Yorkers just don’t thank the one percenters enough. Of course the wealthiest seldom get thanked at all. It’s not at all surprising given their not-so-flattering name was coined by their opponents, Occupy Wall Street

But regardless of whether you think billionaires should be taxed a lot or not, they do deserve our gratitude. If not for all of the Wall Street money floating around, we’d never see presidential candidates at all and they would have no interest in helping the city. New York has been solid blue for almost 30 years, and one of the 40 or so things that Barack Obama and Mitt Romney can agree upon is that the president will carry all of New York’s 29 electoral votes.

Only about 10 states are being contested this November, so “200 million Americans are ignored,” said Patrick Rosenstiel, spokesperson for National Popular Vote, a nonpartisan organization trying to make presidents accountable to all voters.

His group has figured out a clever and apparently legal path to circumvent the Electoral College short of a constitutional amendment. Already eight states and Washington, D.C., which controls 132 electors, have passed laws to someday award all of its presidential votes to the popular vote winner. “Someday” comes when states with a majority of electoral votes, at least 270, sign onto the compact. The Electoral College would remain, but it would be tied to the popular vote.

The idea seems to have a good chance to win enough support. For one, conservative and liberal states have equal incentive to join the effort. The Electoral College is a nonpartisan weapon that can be unfair to either party. Republican George W. Bush of course won the White House despite losing the popular vote in 2000, but four years later, Democrat John Kerry came very close to doing the same thing to Bush. Had Kerry changed about 60,000 votes in Ohio, he would have won the presidency.

The classic civics defense of the Electoral College is that it protects small states and all regions of the country. National Popular Vote blows that argument up, pointing out that the 12 smallest noncompetitive states have roughly the same combined population as a key battleground state, Ohio, but twice the number of electors. Even though these small-state dwellers are twice as powerful on paper as Buckeyes, they are ignored like most New Yorkers.

The electoral college in its current form hurts states small, medium and large, most notably California, a compact signer, Texas and New York. The Constitution doesn’t require winner-take-all—originally most state awarded electors by Congressional districts—but making the Electoral College fairer with a uniform proportional system is dependent on 50 wise and functional state legislatures (insert joke here).
The beauty of the Popular Vote effort is that all Americans could get a voice even if their representatives didn’t think it was a good idea.
New York may actually be one of the next states to act wisely. The national vote effort has twice passed the State Senate, most recently in June with strong Democratic and Republican support.

Jeffrey Dinowitz, the bill’s chief champion in the Assembly, said, “We’re bystanders in this election. I usually tell voters that every vote counts, but the truth it is every vote doesn’t count equally.”

He told me this week he has the votes to pass the bill, about 100, and he will try again to bring it to the floor next year. Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver of Lower Manhattan supports it although an aide says there’s “not yet enough support” to bring it to the floor.
Dinowitz thinks he has 76 Democratic votes, the usual unwritten threshold number, which means the bill could pass without GOP support, but in this case he might need more because Assembly Member Denny Farrell, the powerful chairman of the State Democratic Committee, is an opponent. His spokesperson did not explain his opposition.

Nationally, the effort has gotten more support from Democrats. If Obama wins re-election with fewer votes than Romney, Republican support would rise. With the president polling better in swing states than nationally, the scenario is plausible.

If that happens, “I don’t think there’d be any bigger catalyst to change,” said Rosenstiel, although he anticipates continued momentum regardless of this year’s outcome.

Meanwhile I hope—as people living in Arab Spring countries once did— to one day be able to help pick my country’s leader. This week, I’m heading down to vacation in North Carolina and to see what it feels like when candidates care about winning votes. I understand that down there, political ads are actually paid for, and don’t get aired as news items.

Maybe I should be careful what I wish for.

Josh Rogers, contributing editor at Manhattan Media, is a lifelong New Yorker.

Mitt Romney. Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney appeared at three private fundraising events in the Hamptons this past weekend, raising a total of approximately $3 million, and causing quite a stir among protesters. Billionaire David Koch hosted one of these notable fundraisers at his shorefront home, reports ABC News. Oil tycoon Koch has come to be known as half of the billionaire brother duo dominating conservative fundraising.

Koch’s event was tightly secured, according to ABC, as about 150 protesters showed up to express their disgust. Occupy Wall Street and MoveOn.org supporters were among protesters who made an appearance. Protesters, who could reportedly barely see the estate from where they were permitted to stand, held signs rejecting “corporate personhood” and the price of a ticket to the event ($75,000 per couple). They stood barefoot on the beach holding signs, sailing “protest boats,” flying a small plane and singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

Those who showed up to condemn contamination of the electoral process through such fundraising means called the gathering a success, saying they took the message where it mattered.

The Daily News reports Obama cancelled a vacation in Martha’s Vineyard this year, so as to not appear to be “hanging with the billionaires” and alienate those who oppose such displays of wealth.

According to the New York Times: “Tucked into the Southampton dunes, Mr. Koch’s home is valued at about $18 million by the real estate Web site Zillow, which reports that it has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms. Its backyard is the sea.”

—Alissa Fleck

Obama knows how to attract star power. Though his opponents accuse him of spending more time as a celebrity than a politician, the President continues to enjoy the limelight as the guest of honor at super high profile fundraisers organized for him by some of America’s most famous.

In February actor George Clooney welcomed Obama to his home, and tonight “Sex in the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker, Vogue editor Anna Wintour and singer Mariah Carey will entertain him in New York City. Parker and Wintour are hosting a 50-person, $40, 000-per-guest dinner at Parker’s West Village place to support the Obama campaign, and Carey is performing in a second benefit dinner at the Plaza Hotel at Fifth Avenue, this one with 250 people at $10,000 a ticket.

You may not have $50K piled in your bathtub to swim in on lonely days like tonight’s guests, but here are five ways you still might be able to slip by the tough looking security guys in suits and sunglasses who stand between an average Thursday night and waking up tomorrow with a hangover and pictures on your phone of you trying to make out with Mariah Carey:

1.Walk in on the arm of a celebrity

There’s no way the security guards know every face on the guest list, so just hide right around the corner from the entrance and latch on to the first free famous arm that passes. You can explain once you’re in. Oh, I’m sorry, beautiful famous lady, I mistook you for my equally beautiful and also famous girlfriend.

2. Connect with one of the guards on a personal / spiritual level

It worked on bouncers all the time when you were younger, right? You forgot your ID at home and look about 15, but the big, burly secret service guy at the door is suddenly your best friend after you share a cigarette and realize that you both love Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

3. Dress up weird and say you’re Lady Gaga

You never know what this pop superstar will show up wearing at big events, and neither do security guards. Wear jet black make up, put a cardboard box on your head, cover yourself entirely in McDonald’s cheeseburgers – do whatever, just make sure that no one can really see your face and that you call whatever you’re doing fashion. (N.B. You might want to check to see if Lady Gaga is actually on the guest list.)

4. Pretend you’re part of the catering staff

This one’s easy because it’s in the movies. Pull some unsuspecting event staffer into a hidden room, make a lot of crashing and bonking sounds, throw in some cartoon smoke and lightning effects for comedy, and walk out 30 seconds later perfectly attired in the staffer’s clothes. Grab a tray of oeurs d’oeuvres and proceed to famous person mingling.

5. Find an invisibility cloak

Rumored to be made from the hair of Demiguise, this magical cloak conceals whoever wears it from site. It only exists in Harry Potter. Sadly, it also is the only option on this list that might actually get you in.

(By the way, if you read this article for real advice, you might want to try contacting this couple.)

There are some interesting clues to insider politics. Clinton has announced that she is not interested in serving another term. She says she will not campaign for the president. Her husband, Bill, says he wishes his wife would run for the top job.

The woman who replaced Clinton in the Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, says she will be an original signatory to the draft Hillary movement. I can hardly believe she made that announcement without checking with Hillary. A recent New York Times poll shows there has been a reversal in the female vote and that a majority of women now favor Mitt Romney.

Obviously, we have no real idea about what goes on here. But we have to remember that Barack Obama narrowly edged out Clinton for the Democratic nomination to run for president. Maybe, in the immortal words of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, Clinton is still thinking, “I could have been a contender.” Or maybe there are another thousand reasons why Hillary is saying what she’s saying.

Now the atmosphere is filled with rumors that Team Obama will have to replace Vice President Joe Biden with Clinton. Up until now, everyone denied the rumor. The president has stated that he isn’t making any changes. But winning the presidency is what we call a “mutually exclusive game”; you only get one winner and there are no second prizes.
If confronted by the cold hard facts that they might lose the presidency, the Obama people may have to ask Clinton and Biden to switch places—Clinton runs for vice president and Biden is offered the secretary of state position. I’m a big Biden fan and I think he has the chops to make a lot of friends for the United States.

Back home in New York, one can only wonder how Gov. Cuomo is taking to all of this. We know the Cuomos are always thinking six moves in advance—“Is this good for me or bad for me?”

If Clinton runs for vice president and the ticket wins, there will be no contest—she’ll be the candidate in 2016. On the other hand, if she doesn’t run, there will be more of a Cuomo opportunity. Let’s face it, I don’t think Clinton wants to do it and I don’t think that Obama wants to jettison Biden, but when the middle of the night comes and it’s a question of winning or losing, the hard realities will prevail. It will be a win-win.

There have been many times in U.S. history when such difficult decisions have been made. Ike had to live with Nixon, who he never really liked. Kennedy had to take Johnson; without him, he just wouldn’t have won. So unless Hillary is ill or is otherwise indisposed, she’ll have to take the offer when and if it comes.

When and if Hillary becomes vice president, she will be the font of all patronage and pork in New York. That too, may cause a little friction with the governor’s office—or just the opposite. You just never know.

Based on recent polling, I really think that this is a no-brainer. The way it looks now, Hillary, if she wins, would be the first female vice president. That’s huge.

Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg 

“This is a major turning point in the history of American civil rights. No American president has ever supported a major expansion of civil rights that has not ultimately been adopted by the American people – and I have no doubt that this will be no exception. The march of freedom that has sustained our country since the Revolution of 1776 continues, and no matter what setbacks may occur in a given state, freedom will triumph over fear and equality will prevail over exclusion. Today’s announcement is a testament to the President’s convictions, and it builds on the courageous stands that so many Americans have taken over the years on behalf of equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans, stretching back to the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.”

Congressman Jerrold Nadler

“I applaud President Obama for announcing his support for marriage equality today.  For the first time in this nation’s history, a sitting president has shown the courage and leadership to stand up for all American families by pledging to support the fundamental right of every person to marry the person they love, and to have that marriage fully respected.  I commend President Obama for this brave and honest step.  Those who seek to politicize civil rights for personal or political gain will certainly attack him, but the course toward marriage equality and justice is the correct and inevitable path.”

Senator Thomas Duane

The announcement today by President Barack Obama in support of marriage equality is historic. If you would have told me five years ago that a sitting President of the United States would publicly express the right of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) citizens to marry, and for full equality for our families, I would not have believed it.

As the first openly gay State Senator in the State of New York, I was the original and prime sponsor of NY’s historic Marriage Equality Act. As proud as I was of New York for its passage of Marriage Equality, so too am I proud of President Obama’s courageous decision to publicly support it nationwide.  We must do all we can as a community to insure Barack Obama remains President for another four years.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn

“This is an amazing day, our President coming out in support of marriage equality. President Obama’s declaration that marriage is a right for all people is an act of courage that will go down in history as the moment the tide changed for LGBT Americans. When the President of the United States validates you, your family, your friends and your loved ones by saying that yes – you are full citizens who deserve full equal rights – it’s a truly American moment. Today President Obama gave hope to a new generation of LGBT youth who will grow up knowing there is nothing wrong with who they are, and that no matter how bad things may seem, the President, and the United States of America stands with them. Even with a recent setback in North Carolina, now that we have the support of President Obama, we have never been closer to making marriage equality a reality for everyone, everywhere then we are now. Today, we are on the cusp of change, and I’m enormously grateful and proud of President Obama, marriage equality advocates and everyone who has worked so hard to bring us to this moment. Thank you for all you have done, and all we will continue to do for equality.”

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer

“President Obama’s endorsement of same sex marriage is a transformational moment in the fight for equality worldwide. By stating definitively that he supports expanding a fundamental right that most Americans take for granted, President Obama has shown his commitment to being on the right side of history.”

]]> http://nypress.com/local-politicians-react-to-president-obamas-support-of-same-sex-marriage/feed/ 0 http://nypress.com/citing-rising-costs-healthy-ny-closes-its-rolls/ http://nypress.com/citing-rising-costs-healthy-ny-closes-its-rolls/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:01:39 +0000 admin http://nypress.com/?p=38622 Laura Nahmias reports this morning:

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to keep or toss parts of President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform law, New York is confronting its own potential crisis over health costs.

Healthy New York, the 12-year-old insurance program for individuals and small businesses, does not have enough money to cover any new enrollees.

The program, which currently has 178,000 enrollees, receives $160 million annually to help cover claims costs up to a certain amount, but has decided to stop admitting new people into its standard plans, citing the rise in health care costs, a spike in the number of enrollees and flat funding for the program.

Now, according to the state’s Department of Financial Services, the plan will only admit new enrollees if they sign up for the program’s much less popular high-deductible health plan, which requires single people to pay $1,200 out of pocket before they begin to receive coverage, and requires families to pay double that amount.

Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society, said this change is something close to a disaster.

“I think it’s a hardship for anybody that doesn’t have a couple thousand dollars lying around for out of pocket healthcare costs,” Benjamin said.

Healthy New York is limited to people earning 250 percent above the federal poverty level, sparking fears that the new policy could force those already struggling into more dire fiscal straits.

For instance, a family of four covered by the plan that makes the maximum amount the plan allows, $47,000 a year, would pay a deductible of $2,400, on a monthly pre-tax income of $3,900.

“If you had a medical catastrophe, you’d have to spend more than half your monthly income to get care, which is not very realistic,” Benjamin said. “It’s almost like financial disaster for people.”

The Department of Financial Services says the problem is one that will be solved by federal health reform, particularly by the implementation of the health exchange program. Senate Republicans refused to put the exchanges in the state’s budget, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he would implement the program via executive order.

To read the full article at City & State click here.