February 26, 2014
This conference sponsored by LaborPress will feature more than two dozen notables and experts on health care from politics, labor, and business, including New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; Mitra Behroozi, executive director of Local 1199 SEIU’s benefit and pension funds; and Richard Gottfried, chair of the New York State Assembly Health Committee.
The event will run from 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at the New York City District Council of Carpenters, 395 Hudson St., 10th Floor Conference Center. Registration and breakfast will begin at 8:15 a.m. More than 200 people have already signed up.
President Buffenbarger will deliver the keynote address, followed by two panel discussions. The first, “Navigating the New Healthcare World,” will address how members, plan administrators, insurance carriers, and service providers can work together to get the most out of the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace exchanges. It will be moderated by Mark Hannay, director of the Metro NY Health Care for All Campaign.
The second, “Meeting New Health-Care Challenges,” will be moderated by Professor Oren M. Levin-Waldman of Metropolitan College of New York’s Graduate School for Public Affairs and Administration. In it, panelists responsible forproviding comprehensive coverage will discuss the new plans, products, and services that will make the ACA work best for union members, their families, and communities.
The final event will be a strategy round-table discussion entitled “Winning Better Health Care,” in which experts, strategists, and union representatives will talk about the ACA’s passage and how to improve the plan. Moderated by Gene Carroll, co-director of the New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute, this panel will include Local 1199’s Behroozi and Assemblymember Gottfried, who is sponsoring a bill to set up a state single-payer system called New York Health and CWA Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes.
