Editor’s Note: The following is an updated version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) joined two Bronx-based doctors at an event at Lehman College on Saturday, Feb. 28, as he continued a years-long campaign to urge Bronxites to call on his colleagues in State government to become champions of The NY Health Act and ensure its passage during the current State legislative session in Albany. Legislators are currently preparing to finalize the next State budget.

 

Rivera, chair of the State health committee, was speaking at the 52^nd anniversary of the founding of the nonprofit, Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC), which announced its new name, “Our Bronx,” at the event. “Throughout my 15 years in office, my team and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition have worked in lock step to invest in our people and address our borough’s most pressing concerns,” Rivera said, adding that he remained proud to partner with the organization as it grows into a borough-wide force in the form of ‘Our Bronx.’

 

“This moment demands urgent state action around healthcare, an issue that Bronxites feel more than other New Yorkers, as they have struggled with barriers to care and high, out-of-pocket costs for too long,” Rivera said. “The New York Health Act is a common-sense solution that would guarantee quality healthcare for all New Yorkers, regardless of age, wealth, or immigration status.”

 

With nearly two thirds of Bronx residents relying on Medicaid, NWBCCC / Our Bronx members said local impacts of federal policy and funding decisions could hit the borough especially hard. In preparation, over the last year, the organization has been partnering with healthcare worker organizations, including SEIU1199, the New York State Nurses Association, and Physicians for a National Health Program, alongside Rivera, in reaching hundreds of Bronx residents through various town halls, calling for state action on healthcare.

 

Meanwhile, Rivera said the New York Health Act would also protect the State from the federal administration’s Medicaid cuts and what he described as “draconian” coverage eligibility changes which he said would go into effect over the next few years. “As lead sponsor of the NY Health Act, I am committed to working with ‘Our Bronx’ to make universal health coverage a reality that will transform the lives of so many in our borough and across New York State,” the senator said.

 

Dr. Imam Hassan and Dr. Betty Kolod, both primary care doctors in The Bronx, are also members of the health justice steering committee of Our Bronx. Hassan said they were there to explain that the healthcare system is broken. “Far too many of us can’t get access to high-quality, affordable healthcare,” she said adding that healthcare should be a human right but instead people face insurance denials, delays in care, and their access to essential health services is blocked. “Even our NYSNA nurses have had fight to protect their healthcare, requiring a historic strike that went on for 28 days just to keep their high-quality healthcare.”

 

For her part, Kolod talked about one of her patients, Carmen, who she described as a feisty and no-nonsense lady. “She went to the pharmacy recently and was told that her medication would be $600,” she said. “She was completely shocked, and it took me, two nurses, a social worker and a pharmacist to put it together.” This was met with shouts of “That ain’t right!” Kolod said she had just celebrated her 65th birthday and was on the Medicare Advantage plan that had a very high deductible. “This is all before the Big Ugly Bill healthcare cuts take effect,” Kolod said. “So we all know that when these healthcare cuts take effect, The Bronx will be hit the hardest if we don’t stand together and fight.”

 

Kolod explained that about half of Bronx residents are on Medicaid and that doctors were already seeing the effects of the cuts. “We’re seeing things like cuts to transportation for people with disabilities,” she said. “Also, healthcare is the biggest employer in The Bronx, and one out of every person in The Bronx is on the Essential Plan so when that’s cut, if we don’t fight to protect it, we’re going to see massive numbers of people who will be uninsured.”

 

The Essential Plan is a low-cost, comprehensive health insurance program for low-to-moderate-income New Yorkers, often called a “Basic Health Program.” It offers $0 monthly premiums and $0 deductibles for individuals (19-64) who do not qualify for Medicaid or employer-sponsored insurance, often called low-cost health coverage or a state-sponsored health plan.

Dr. Betty Kolod speaks on the NY Health Act during the 52nd anniversary celebration of Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition / Our Bronx at Lehman College, Bedford Park, The Bronx 2/28/26, alongside Dr. Imam Hassan and State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) V9 Video by Síle Moloney

Hassan said it was known that not having health insurance causes sickness and death and went on to talk about how one of her Bronx patients, who has diabetes but doesn’t have health insurance, hasn’t been able to consistently access insulin. “Just a few months ago, he was hospitalized with a foot infection,” she said. “Doctors had to amputate his entire foot and his leg below the knee. This would have been completely preventable if he had health insurance. In the richest city, in the richest country in the world, our patients suffer because they can’t afford healthcare.”

 

Kolod said the real solution was the NY Health Act, and said if passed, New York would be the first state in the country to have truly guaranteed, universal, single payer healthcare, regardless of immigration status, employment status or marital status. “We would have no premiums, no copays, no deductibles,” she said. “We could stay with our doctor, not have to worry if they’re still in network, and we would be guaranteed the healthcare that we need. So, that’s primary care, addiction services, going into the hospital, our medications, devices like wheelchairs, hospital beds, gender-affirming care, abortion, psychiatric care, mental health services, and vision, dental, hearing and long-term care.”

 

Rivera thanked Kolod and Hassan for their advocacy, saying, “Every single day, you treat patients. You do it because you care deeply about their well-being. You fight for this even though you have a full-ass job actually taking care of people. You fight to make sure that stuff like this becomes a reality by joining an organization like this, by pushing folks, by organizing, so thank you.”

STATE SEN. GUSTAVO Rivera (S.D. 33) calls for the passage of the NY Health Act during the 52nd anniversary celebration of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, now called Our Bronx, at Lehman College, Bedford Park, The Bronx on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. He’s joined by Bronx-based, primary care doctors, Dr. Imam Hassan and Dr. Betty Kolod. V10 Video by Síle Moloney

The senator went on to say that in his 15 years in office, despite some early hurdles, the core of the NWBCCC/ Our Bronx had always remained the same. “It has always been, ‘How do you take neighbors in the Northwest Bronx and focus them on fundamental issues, changing their own conditions, and then working to ensure that we change them for The Bronx as a whole,’ and now, you’re going to do it for the entire Bronx and hopefully [..] you can help me change how we do it for the entire state, and our country!” he said.

 

Of the NY Health Act, he said, “We’re not talking about some fantastical, you know, kind of like, ‘We’re living on Mars’ type of situation. No! The fact is that this, our beloved country, is the only place with the obscenity of somebody going broke because they get sick is a reality that we all have to live with.” Rivera said passing the law was about political will, and called on Bronxites to appeal to those elected officials who say, “Well, it’s the system that we kind of got to deal with.”

 

“This is the only place where you can go broke because you get sick,” the senator said. ‘It literally can’t happen anywhere else! That is an obscenity! So we can solve it, but to solve it, we just have to pass this bill but to pass this bill, we need political will. It is not about something that kind of maybe can get done. It is something that must be done, and I would argue that this moment, right now, more than at any other time, is precisely the time.”

 

He went on to say that the worst of the federal cuts have not yet been felt and people should be braced for more hardship. “The machete from the top is coming, and that is going to impact not just the people who work or who are part of the public systems, because we all live in the same place, and we’re all going to get sick, and there’s going to be a bunch of us that don’t have any type of insurance, and that means that the whole system is going to be impacted,” he said.

STATE SEN. GUSTAVO Rivera (S.D. 33) calls for the passage of the NY Health Act during the 52nd anniversary celebration of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, now called Our Bronx, at Lehman College, Bedford Park, The Bronx on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. He’s joined by Bronx-based, primary care doctors, Dr. Imam Hassan and Dr. Betty Kolod. V11 Video by Síle Moloney

Of his Bronx colleagues in State government, Rivera said, “I think all of them are sponsors of the bill, both in the senate and in the assembly, so God Bless them for that!” This was met with broad applause. “That’s a good thing but here’s the thing, folks. That ain’t enough!” he said. “It is just not enough to be a sponsor of the bill. You have to be a champion of the bill. We need to convince my colleagues that this is a political necessity!” he said.

 

He said everyone in the room had their own healthcare story about their own health, or that of their family or neighbors and how insurance companies have made decisions on their behalf while they try to figure out whether to go to the doctor or not because of the cost. “Folks who break their arm when they’re playing basketball and would rather get an Uber than call an ambulance because it’s going to cost them too much,” he said. ‘Those are the types of things that happen every single day in our neighborhood.”

 

Dilleta Pina, board member of NWBCCC / Our Bronx, and a retired City worker, had talked at a 2025 event of her experience of worrying about her 57-year-old son, Robert, who, in 2024, underwent a kidney transplant. “This is not pleasant for me,” she said in part at that event. “First and foremost, I’m a mom. These Medicaid cuts have made me scared and angry and feeling all kinds of emotions. My firstborn was born 57 years ago. You will see him and you will see a grown man, but when I look at him, I see my baby that I held in my arms 57 years ago.”

STATE SEN. GUSTAVO Rivera (S.D. 33) calls for the passage of the NY Health Act during the 52nd anniversary celebration of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, now called Our Bronx, at Lehman College, Bedford Park, The Bronx on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. He’s joined by Bronx-based, primary care doctors, Dr. Imam Hassan and Dr. Betty Kolod. V12 Video by Síle Moloney

Pina said Robert was going to need anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life in order for his organ not to fail. “We don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said referring to the Medicaid cuts taking effect. “He may not be able to afford the anti-rejection medication and even if I were to give him all of the money that I have from my pension [..], every penny may not cover the anti-rejection medication that he needs to stay alive. So, this big, murder bill that they passed in Washington is really going to affect a lot of us.”

 

She said many others were in similar situations to her and Robert, but added that the cuts would also affect people like the 1199 members who work in healthcare who she said may lose their jobs, along with home help aides who take care of seniors and people with disabilities. “Hospitals are going to close, health centers are going to close,” she said. “It’s going to be disastrous and this is why I’m here passionately advocating for the New York Health Act to pass because that will cover everybody in the State, no co-payments, no [inaudible] will be included, hearing, vision, dental.”

 

She added, “One important thing is when the people lose their job or go to another job, they still have their healthcare, they don’t have to worry about staying with a bad boss and losing their healthcare. Also, people who are undocumented and documented will be covered and that’ll help all of us, because all of us are going to be healthy if we all have universal healthcare.”

 

Rivera concluded saying he appreciated Our Bronx being his allies for as long as they have been. He stressed that their collective efforts needed to be ramped up however. “We’re going to be champions of the bill,” he said. “What that means is that every single one, particularly the folks in leadership….y’all know who I’m talking about? We need to go and pressure by talking about the realities in The Bronx right now that are impacting every single one of us.”

 

As reported, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), who broadly represents the northwest Bronx, recently spoke at his reelection campaign launch last month about his seniority given his four decades as an assemblyman. He said the borough was “doing amazingly well” adding, “We can always do better. There are many things we have to improve but I’m never going to stop fighting for The Bronx and certainly for the community that I have lived in all of my life.” Dinowitz said one of the benefits of chairing committees was the ability to get things done more easily “if you know how to get things done,” he added.

STATE SEN. GUSTAVO Rivera (S.D. 33) calls for the passage of the NY Health Act during the 52nd anniversary celebration of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, now called Our Bronx, at Lehman College, Bedford Park, The Bronx on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. He’s joined by Bronx-based, primary care doctors, Dr. Imam Hassan and Dr. Betty Kolod. V13 Video by Síle Moloney

Meanwhile, back at Lehman College, Rivera said of the healthcare situation in New York, “Just getting kind of along is not enough anymore. It is politically complicated, it is technically complicated, but if the political will is there, we can do it. As I celebrate you on your 52 years, I would say that all that energy that you have built up over these years, you’ve already given it to me, I’ve already been around it, I’ve already been made better by it. We’ve already been able to achieve so much together but this one, we get this done, it will fundamentally change the way this is done around the country.”

 

He added, “If we get it done in New York, we’ve founded a model for the rest of the country and then we ultimately fundamentally change the way that we deliver healthcare to people in all of our states, in all of our country. Let’s get it done together.”

 

Norwood News previously asked the governor’s office for comment on the potential cost to the State of passing the NY Health Act and were advised that her office did not comment on pending legislation.