For a background on recent reports, here is a summary of articles:
New York is in a battle to obtain Insurance Equality for parity with reimbursement policies. Surf here for an editorial in the NY Times opposing this legislation.
NY Times reports that Governor will veto NY bill.
In 1992, Chiropractors came close to obtaining passage of a more appropriate bill, but were turned away in the 11th hour as then Governor Mario Cuomo refused to consider the bill for signing.
This year saw another valiant effort thworted in the 11th hour. Literally! On Monday, July 8, a Governor's Program Bill, prepared by the Governor in place of an insurance equality bill already passed by the Senate and Assembly, was introduced to the State Legislature. It quickly passed the Senate and by Friday evening July 12, its passage in the Assembly appeared imminent. Everything appeared to be going along very nicely. It was a "done deal", according to various sources. Lobbyists for other causes were congratulating the NYSCA on an apparent victory.
Then, to everyone's dismay, NYSCA representatives, who trekked up to Albany to watch the passage of the bill in the State Assembly, were informed that Governor Pataki was disinclined to sign his own program bill. This news came down to the Assembly gallery about 2:15am on Saturday morning July 13th. Apparently, the Governor caved into pressure from the Business Council, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA), the HMO Conference of New York, the Blues and others who claimed that this alternative legislation wasn't any better and in some instances worse than the chiropractic insurance equality bill that had cleared the legislature in June.
Then on September 25, 1996, Governor Pataki came thru with his pledge to veto the insurance equality bill which was placed on his desk. This effectively shut the door for another year on passage of an insurance equality bill. While chiropractors obviously have an inherent interest in passage of this bill from an economic and survival point of view, lack of passage of this bill also harms the consumer, the Chiropractic patient. Without equal treatment under insurance policies for equal treatment by various providers, it is ultimately the Chiropractic patient who is harmed by this insensitivity by the collective legislative and lobbying parties involved.
On September 26, 1996, NYSCA President, Dr. Leonard Venezia issued the following statement:
The original insurance equality bill that was passed by the Senate in February and the Assembly in June was sent to the Governor's Office on September 13. Yesterday, consistent with his public statements, the Governor vetoed the legislation.The following reasons have been cited for the Governors veto:With this action, the 1996 Legislative Session is finally over for us. As I stated in my President's Message in the last NYSCA Newsletter, we must move on. We will set our sights on 1997. I look forward to developing an aggressive, effective new strategy at the upcoming Board of Directors and House of Delegates meetings.
Cost Implications;