Fighting for Equity Means Saving New York’s Healthcare

NYSNA is a union of nurse leaders who fight tirelessly for communities that are healthy and thriving. This past year has altered the nature of our battles, rolling back the clock on progress we’ve made in increasing access to healthcare, the safety of immigrants and the power of organized labor. In the face of federal attacks, we must fight to protect what we’ve worked so hard to achieve while keeping an eye on the future we want to create.

As a country, we’re facing an unprecedented healthcare crisis, which takes its own shape in New York. Over the past 25 years, New York has lost nearly four dozen hospitals.1 We have some of the longest emergency wait times in the country,2 with many New Yorkers delaying care altogether because of cost or fear. In New York, a Black mother3 is five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than her white peer, a fact that is almost too shameful to repeat. Soon, Medicaid and other federal healthcare cuts will make tackling these problems much more challenging.

Affordability and Equity

However, we also have an extreme amount of wealth circulating through this state. Although our hospitals are all nonprofits, we have some of the highest hospital executive pay in the country, and hospitals are investing millions in Silicon Valley-like artificial intelligence startups, which pose yet unknown threats to patient care.

Patients are facing an affordability crisis. Hospital prices in New York have increased at a rate significantly faster than the national average, despite efforts to rein in costs. Between 2017 and 2021, healthcare costs nationwide rose by 14%; in New York, they rose by over 18%.4 These increases have not coincided with commensurate investments in patient care as revenue per patient is rising. For example, between 2011 and 2022, at NewYork-Presbyterian, the operating profit per adjusted discharge nearly doubled, rising from $3,780 to $6,854.5
And that’s why across the state, from the North Country to Long Island, nurses have demanded that hospitals protect healthcare. Because we know they can.

In addition to private wealth, we have some of the largest public budgets in the country. In New York City alone, we have a budget of over $104 billion. Despite having an anti-healthcare national administration, a lot is possible in New York; we have the power locally to enact change. New York has been a national leader in providing access to high-quality care.

We need to ensure that in the face of these healthcare cuts, hospitals prioritize patient care over executive compensation when they look at their budgets. We need to ensure fair funding for our public and safety-net hospitals. We need to make sure that immigrants who need care feel comfortable walking into our hospitals, because no one should fear that seeking care might jeopardize their family’s place in this country. We need to protect reproductive care and gender-affirming care and ensure that ALL New Yorkers get the care they need.

A Better Way

We are at a pivotal moment, and it’s time to think expansively about how New York could provide more for New Yorkers. With the right resources, we could expand maternal health services and increase access to midwives and nurse practitioners. Harnessing our political will, we could invest in mental health services and crisis infrastructure and help alleviate the overcrowding in our hospitals. We need to do everything in our power to make sure New Yorkers don’t lose any more maternal or pediatric beds. By addressing the inequities in the healthcare system, we ensure that New Yorkers can thrive, because a person’s ZIP code should not determine their life span.

A New York for All

As an immigrant and a woman, I’ve fought battles in which my very existence in this city has been called into question. And as a union, NYSNA has fought to have a seat at the table. It’s through these battles that we’ve shown that we deserve to be here — and we’ve lifted up thousands of others in the process. Our wins aren’t just for nurses; they are for our patients, our communities and our collective futures. Our values — protecting patients and ensuring equity — energized our 2025 contract fights and will continue to shape our strategy as a union.  

We’ve made it clear to our employers and our communities that we need bold and courageous action to meet the historic challenges we face. By working together, we can shape a future where all New Yorkers get the care they deserve.

SOURCES
1 https://www.nysna.org/resources/hospital-closures-2000
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-york-hospital-closures/
2 https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/audit-report-on-the-evaluation-of-the-efforts-to-manage-emergency-department-wait-times-by-kings-county-lincoln-and-elmhurst-hospitals/
3 https://www.health.ny.gov/press/releases/2025/2025-04-11_black_maternal_health_week.htm
4 https://nyhpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Health-Insurance-101-06-22-23.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
5 https://tool.nashp.org/