City Council leader has high praise for HTC health benefits
In the annual State of the City speech, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn cited the Hotel Trades Council's health benefits program as a model for providing workers high quality healthcareââ¬âeven as so many employers are eliminating, drastically cutting, and/or raising the premiums for the health benefits they provide their employees.
Speaker Quinn stated, "By building a medical community, and providing their own insurance, the union has developed a system so efficient they can offer free coverage at 1/3 the cost of the average HMO. You may think that sounds crazy, I think it's crazy that we waited so long to replicate their success."
She then went on to announce she and City Council member Maria del Carmen Arroyo will be working with the Freelancers Union to build a healthcare facility in Brooklyn modeled on our own.
Subsequently, Speaker Quinn, joined by Council members Arroyo and Diana Reyna, paid a personal visit to our state-of-the-art union health center in Harlem. HTC President Peter Ward and several of our members accompanied them on their extensive tour of the facility, which was led by Dr. Robert Greenspan, the chief executive officer of the union's benefit funds. As do so many of those who come to see the Harlem Health Center, Speaker Quinn immediately responded to its cleanliness, saying, "This place is immaculate."
After the tour, she again praised our healthcare delivery system as "a complete medical home, a complete medical community for members," and one which provides quality health care in a more cost-effective way "than really any other entity I have come across." She also stated they wanted "to explore creating similar models for city employees and other groups."
Drexel, Kafi. Plan to Provide City Freelancers Free Healthcare Gains Ground. NY1. March 6, 2012.
Quinn, Christine. State of the City Address. New York City Council. February 9, 2012.
