ICYMI: Healthcare needs to be a human right
12/15/2022
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฑ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ Labor Religion Coalition of New York State ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต #EndMedicalDebt ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฎ, ๐ช๐ฏ๐ค๐ญ๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ข, ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ข๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ญ๐ต ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ค๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ขโ๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ช๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ.
Earlier this week, the Labor Religion Coalition of New York State and our allies at Citizen Action, Community Service Society, and the NYS Poor Peopleโs Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival hosted a rally, press conference, and community forum in support of the campaign to #EndMedicalDebt in New York State. Each year, non-profit hospitals across New York receive over $1 billion in tax support; despite the subsidies, though, these same hospitals choose to take low-income New Yorkers to court over unpaid medical bills, rather than offering them mandated financial assistance. Our #EndMedicalDebt forum was just one action in the campaign to build patient power and pass laws to protect vulnerable New Yorkers from predatory hospital billing.
At Tuesdayโs forum, we heard from a number of community members on the impact that medical debt has had on their lives, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, in observance of International Human Rights Day, we write to you to share one of those stories. Many of us have been personally impacted by the absurdity of our healthcare system, and [โฆ]
