Don Barber, who is running against Senator James Seward, responded to the claims made in Seward's latest campaign commercial:

Sen. Seward claims he has been “fighting for affordable health care.” However, the stripped-down plans Seward touts, with their high co-pays and sky-high deductibles, don’t cover the costs of life-threatening illnesses. A coalition of non-partisan organizations called a recent bill sanctioned by Seward’s Insurance Committee (S6385-A) a “race to the bottom” of “stripped-down benefit packages. Being underinsured has disastrous consequences for people with cancer, other chronic and disabling conditions and illnesses.”

The American Cancer Society said that the bill “offers a false health insurance promise, particularly to people with serious chronic illness, such as cancer….Does New York wish to encourage an insurance plan that denies cancer patients the ability to complete the prescribed course of life-saving chemotherapy?” (Note: Seward was NOT the co- sponsor.)

Sen. Seward is Chairman of the Senate Insurance Committee. He controls all of the Senate’s insurance legislation, yet at the same time he has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the insurance industry. He has blocked every attempt by the Assembly since 2001 to cap health insurance premium increases at 5%. Here is what Assembly bill A- 02942 said: “After years of relatively flat premiums for individuals and small groups
in the mid-1990`s, recent /premium increases have been dramatic. Individual purchasers, senior citizens and small businesses are all reeling from years of double-digit premium increases ranging from ten to 150%.… Without adequate regulatory review, health plan profits have been increasing exponentially. An analysis of data provided by insurers to the SID revealed that HMO profits increased by 93 percent between 2001 and 2005, generating industry-wide profits of more than $6 billion, while enrollment fell by 14% in that time span.”

Property taxes have been driven sky high-by these same Seward-backed health care plans. Municipalities are paying for these double digit increases in health plans, and their budgets drive up the property tax. Schools are paying for teachers’ and paraprofessionals’ health care in the same way, driving up the property tax further. In fact, paraprofessionals’ benefits cost our local government more than their salaries in some cases. In addition, local governments must provide health care to retired teachers at these crushing rates, driving the property tax up further still.

The cost of Seward-backed health care policies acts as a hidden tax, which turns up in disguise inside the property tax bill.

Seward also backs deceptive measures like the property tax cap, actually a property tax increase in disguise since it allows for 3% property tax increases every year.
Sen. Seward has also presided over exploding school taxes. During his 22 years in Albany, state government has piled no fewer than 97 underfunded mandates that have nothing to do with student-teacher relationships on our local schools. These mandates drive up school taxes, again driving property taxes through the roof.

Sen. Seward’s claim that he has been providing “good paying jobs” is vague and deceptive. He voted against an increase in the minimum wage when it was only $5.15. Our young people have been fleeing the region in search of better paying jobs with benefits. This has been described as “bright flight.” That is why our population is shrinking and getting older at the same time. We see a proliferation of minimum wage jobs without benefits in big box stores in our region, and shuttered small businesses on Main Street. Family farms are steadily going out of business, and the overall farm economy is dismal.

Sen. Seward’s commercial is nothing but happy-talk meant to distract us from the economic meltdown we see every day on our tv screens. We are in the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, but Sen. Seward seems to live in a perfect alternative reality. This commercial shows just how out of touch he is.