In the spring of 2007, New York’s Governor established the Partnership for Coverage (“P4C”) initiative. Chaired by the Commissioner of Health Dr. Richard Daines and Superintendent of Insurance Eric Dinallo, the P4C process is supposed to develop a “building-block” approach for statewide health reform.
The P4C process has three phases:
- P4C Public Hearings: Throughout the fall of 2007, eight public hearings were held around the state in Glens Falls, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Old Westbury, two hearings in New York City, and one dial-in telephone hearing. These hearings were intended to collect information regarding obstacles in the current system in order to develop recommendations for health reform. Read and listen to the testimonies here.
- Modeling of Proposals: The State contracted with the Urban Institute (“UI”) to model various reform proposals. On June 30, 2008, the State released the instructions to which the UI must abide when modeling out the various proposals. Highlights of these instructions include: the requirement that modeling must include all New York citizens-both those with and without proper documentation of citizenship; the Family Health Plus benefit package is to be considered the benchmark package for comprehensive benefits, and the recognition that simplification is the key to ensuring the success of public insurance programs. Read more about the Urban Institute instructions here. The State also invited public comments to these instructions. Read HCFANY’s comments here.
- Report of the P4C Team: The Urban Institute’s modeling finished in 2008. This work was reviewed by the State’s P4C team, which released a final report in the summer of 2009.
Proposals Under Consideration
Five stakeholders have offered their own proposals for consideration. Two are from the insurance industry: Excellus/Empire and United Health Group. A third proposal is the Community Service Society’s Cornerstone for Coverage. The fourth idea, called Blueprint for Coverage, applies the Massachusetts program to the New York context and was written by the United Hospital Fund and The Commonwealth Fund. Finally, Health Committee Chair, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried has proposed New York Health Plus.
HCFANY has evaluated each proposal against its 10 Standards. Read the evaluations here:
