Politics on the Hudson

   Although the long-awaited bill to reinstitute mayoral control of New York City schools didn’t get a vote in the Senate this week, legislation to expand health-care coverage for young adults and families, reform the state’s public authorities and provide women with more information about breastfeeding did go forward.

   The bills were already passed by the Assembly and if they are signed by Gov. David Paterson, they will:

  —Allow families to keep adult children 19 to 29 on their health insurance, something Paterson proposed in his budget this year. There are 800,000 New Yorkers who could benefit from this, according to Donald Distasio, CEO of the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey. Many people in that age range go without any kind of health care. They age out of family health-insurance plans in their late teens or early 20s. Families would cover the cost of staying in the health plans.

  —Enable workers who are involuntarily terminated or lose coverage due to a work-hour reduction to continue their group health-insurance coverage (known as COBRA) for 36 months instead of 18 months, at no direct cost to the state or employers. Health insurance in the individual market is much more expensive.

  —Strengthen the Public Authorities Reform Act of 2005 by creating an authorities budget office to financially review the authorities; tighten rules governing the sale of property by authorities; authorize the state comptroller to review authority contracts; create strict new rules to control public authority debt; implement whistle-blower protections for employees; prohibit creating new authority subsidiaries without specific legislative authorization; and require that authorities meet the requirements relating to minority and women-owned businesses.

  —Provide women with more information and education about the health benefits of breastfeeding. The Breastfeeding Mothers’ Bill of Rights would require that new mothers be informed of breastfeeding options before they deliver, during their hospital stay and after they go home. While in the hospital, they would have 24-access to their baby to breastfeed, and the infant could not be given a bottle without the mother’s consent. The bill would ban companies that make and sell formula from pressuring new mothers in hospitals. 

   “As basic as some of these rights are, they are consistently violated. There is a very real problem of women feeling pressured out of breastfeeding because the information they received early in their child’s life was manipulated by commercial interests more concerned with their bottom line,” said Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, who sponsored the Senate bill.