As soon as this summer, the Freelancers Union plans to open a health clinic in Brooklyn which could eventually serve up to 100,000 self-employed New Yorkers. Yesterday, as part of an effort to bolster that plan, as well as pay homage to the union that inspired it, Council Speaker Christine Quinn toured a Hotel Trades Council-run health clinic.
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To aid the union with its plan, the City Council recently set aside $100,000 to go toward a flagship health center in Brooklyn. Freelancers Union founder Sara Horowitz said they’re still looking for space in Downtown Brooklyn, but they’ve already signed on Cambridge-based Iora Health to manage the facility. Iora is a for-profit company that has two clinics that serve restaurant workers in Las Vegas and another in New Hampshire for Dartmouth College employees.
Initially, the Freelancers’ Union, which has 93,000 members in the city, will support 3,000 people in the walk-in clinics. But according to the plan, it will eventually support as many as 100,000 patients enrolled in the Freelancers Insurance Company. Aside from having primary care and other specialized medical services, Horowitz said they’re also looking at alternative medicine and yoga.
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In a seperate initiative, the Freelancers Union last month got a $340 million federal grant to create Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs) in New York, New Jersey and Oregon. Of that, $174 million will go to New York's plan. (The money comes from $3.8 billion in co-op funding set aside for in the 2010 national health care legislation.)
The freelancer co-ops would be independently run plans with their own leadership, but sponsored by the union. They would compete with private insurers and launch in 2014.
Horowitz pointed out that New York was the place where experiments in health, banks and insurance began.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/03/5406676/quinn-tours-union-health-clinic-she-hopes-will-be-model-freelancer-
Hat Tip: Capital New York
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