Tell Albany: New Yorkers need universal health care.

The bill is designed to cover New York residents and people employed full time in New York but living out of state. It does not make coverage depend on your age, income, wealth, employment, or other status. Campaign for New York Health often sums this up as “everybody in, nobody out.”

That matters because many people are technically insured but still cannot afford to use their insurance. Others lose coverage when they lose a job, age out of a plan, move, get divorced, retire, or become self-employed. A statewide public plan is meant to make coverage stable.

People would be covered through one statewide health program instead of depending on a private plan, an employer plan, or a changing patchwork of coverage. The bill says New York Health would provide comprehensive coverage to every resident who enrolls.

Covered care would include medical care, prescriptions, dental, vision, hearing, mental health care, and long-term care. The bill also aims to remove deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, and out-of-network charges for covered services, which means people could seek care without trying to calculate whether they can afford the next bill.

Yes. A1466 is written to protect patient choice and reduce the role of private insurance networks. The bill says the program should support patient autonomy in choosing health care providers and making health care decisions.

In plain terms, the goal is for people to choose care based on who can treat them, not whether a provider is in one insurance company’s network. The bill also says care coordination should help people get needed services, not act as a gatekeeper.

Having insurance does not always mean care is affordable or easy to use. People with insurance can still face high premiums, deductibles, co-pays, surprise costs, narrow networks, denied claims, or coverage changes when they switch jobs, lose a job, retire, move, or become self-employed.

The New York Health Act is meant to make coverage stable and portable. Instead of health care being tied to an employer or a specific insurance plan, the bill would cover New Yorkers through a public program with broad benefits and no deductibles or co-pays for covered care.

The bill would replace private insurance for benefits covered by New York Health. That means insurers could not sell duplicate coverage for the same covered services, because the public plan would already cover them.

Private insurance could still exist for services outside the New York Health benefit package. The basic idea is to stop making people rely on private insurance for medically necessary care while leaving room for separate coverage for things the public plan does not cover.

The bill would replace private insurance bills with public funding. Instead of paying premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-network charges, New Yorkers would help fund one statewide health plan based on ability to pay.

A1466 calls for a revenue plan built around progressive taxes on payroll, self-employment income, and non-payroll income like dividends, interest, and capital gains. For employees, employers would pay at least 80% of the payroll tax and workers would pay no more than 20%. Self-employed people would pay the full assessment.

The bill also directs federal health care money and existing state health care funding into the New York Health Trust Fund. The basic idea is not “one more bill on top of everything else.” It is replacing the costs people already pay now with a public system that is meant to be simpler, more predictable, and based on ability to pay.

People who are eligible for Medicare would keep that eligibility. The bill is written to bring available federal health care funds into the New York Health Trust Fund so New York Health can coordinate coverage instead of leaving people to manage separate bills and gaps.

Campaign for New York Health explains that seniors would get broader benefits, including prescription drugs, dental, vision, hearing, mental health care, and long-term care. That could reduce the need for supplemental Medicare plans, but the details would depend on federal approvals and implementation.

The bill would change what unions have to bargain over. Instead of spending bargaining power defending health benefits from cuts, unions could focus more on wages, staffing, paid time off, workplace safety, and other benefits.

Campaign for New York Health also notes that unions with low or no worker contributions would be able to bargain over the worker share of the payroll tax. Public employers would have to maintain at least the share of health costs they already cover, or 80%, whichever is greater.

The bill is designed to replace the health care costs people and businesses already pay, not simply add another bill on top. Self-employed people would contribute through the public financing system, but they would also no longer pay premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or covered out-of-pocket costs.

For small businesses, the tradeoff is similar: instead of trying to buy private coverage plan by plan, employers would contribute through a predictable public system. That could make health costs easier to plan around, especially for businesses that struggle to offer coverage or compete with larger employers for workers.

A1466 is not up for a full Assembly vote yet. The Assembly currently lists it in the Health Committee, which means it still needs committee action before it can move toward the Assembly floor.

The timing matters because the official Assembly calendar lists 2026 session days through June 4. Advocates are pushing for the bill to be placed on the Health Committee agenda while session days remain. Getting on the agenda is one of the steps needed before the bill can move out of committee and toward a floor vote.

That is why this tool changes the ask based on your Assembly member. If they have not signed on, the draft asks them to co-sponsor. If they already support it, the draft asks them to help move it. If they are on the Health Committee or in Assembly leadership, the ask is more specific because they have more power over whether the bill advances.

Email puts your message in writing, which is useful. A phone call does something slightly different: it makes clear that a real constituent is paying attention and wants the office to act.

You do not need to debate policy on the phone. A short call with your name, district, and one clear ask is enough. Legislative offices track constituent contacts, and a call can help make sure your email does not disappear into a crowded inbox.

Tell Albany is meant to help with one concrete action: contacting your own Assembly member with the right ask. It is not a replacement for the organizers, coalition partners, and campaign resources already moving the New York Health Act forward.

For the broader campaign, events, deeper explainers, and ways to plug in, follow Campaign for New York Health. This tool is here to make constituent pressure easier and point people toward the existing work.

Read the official Assembly bill page, check the Assembly contact list, or follow Campaign for New York Health's explainer, FAQ, and get involved page.