Mad that nobody ever listens to your great ideas to fix the state’s health insurance problems? Well, now’s your chance to really speak up, and the state Health and Insurance departments are all ears. A state-wide call-in session will be held at 3 p.m. next Wednesday. The general public (you) are invited to join the discussion alongside patient advocates, health-care providers, insurance representatives and business and labor groups. “This unique call-in session will go a long way toward our ‘building blocks’ approach to finding ways that we can economically extend coverage to all New Yorkers who lack health insurance and don’t qualify for existing state programs,” said Dr. Richard Daines, Health Department Commissioner. To trstify you have to preregister with either Cindy Esterby, Department of Health, at (518) 474-5737 or Deborah Greer, Insurance Department, at (518) 474-4567. If you just want to listen, call 888-316-9407 and provide the pass code: DOH. State Insurance Department spokesman David Neustadt said the officials don’t know how many people might sign up to testify. But if there are a lot, he said more hearings will be scheduled. For more information on the hearings and Partnership for Coverage, visit: http://partnership4coverage.ny.gov
—Dan Osburn

  The New York pension system paid out an average benefit payment of $24,293 last year, sixth highest of any state, according to new Census Bureau data analyzed by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. Payments last year from the fund totalled $18.7 billion.     A year earlier, the fund, which makes pension payments to state and local-government retirees who worked outside New York City, made average payments of $23,891, eighth highest among the 50 states.    While pensions are fairly high for New York public employees, their contributions to the system – just 2.5 percent of pension-fund receipts last year – were among the lowest in the country, ranking 45th  out of 50 states. Most of the rest of the receipts come from investment income from the fund, which now totals about $154 billion.      More details can be found at http:empirecenter.org/2007/10/statepensioncostscontinuetoclimb.cfm Â

Nearly 30 county clerks across the state voted to oppose Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s directive to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. In most areas of New York, county clerks operate departments of motor vehicles on behalf of the state. The state Catholic Conference announced yesterday that it supports Spitzer’s plan.

Advocates for expanding a popular federal-state health insurance program for low-income children demonstrated around the state and country Thursday against President Bush’s veto this week of Congress’ bill to do that. Health-care providers and labor leaders held a protest in Elmira of U.S. Rep. John “Randy” Kuhl’s vote against the expansion. Kuhl is a Republican from Hammondsport, Steuben County.

Elmira’s two hospitals have told the state they can’t agree on a merger, as directed by New York’s health-care “rightsizing” directives, but they will continue working on a plan to share services.

Some have noted a growing tension between Spitzer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The two were at a gathering of Democratic Party state officials on Long Island yesterday but did not speak, with the governor leaving after a speech and not even making eye contact with the attorney general.

State investigators have subpoenaed records from a financial business owned by former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s son Daniel Hevesi in a widening investigation of New York’s pension fund. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is probing whether investment firms paid millions of dollars to friends and family of Alan Hevesi to obtain pension-fund contracts.

A new study shows that New Yorkers are paying more for electricity after deregulation than they were before.

Former Gov. George Pataki has been named co-chairman of the influential Council on Foreign Relations’ task force on global climate change.

County clerks from around the state are holding an emergency meeting in Albany today about Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s decision to make illegal immigrants eligible for driver’s licenses. Many clerks and GOP lawmakers are against the change.

Also in Albany today, children’s advocates are speaking out against President Bush’s veto of an expansion of the national child health-insurance program for families with low incomes who are not eligible for Medicaid.

The switch to new voting machines in New York will be delayed until 2009, according to a new plan released by the state Board of Elections.

The state Bridge Authority is nearly finished with its project of installing phones for people in crisis on its bridges, and other state agencies have implemented similar systems or are considering doing so.

Questions about the Oneida Indian Nation’s sovereignty led the state to deny its six liquor-license applications for the Turning Stone Resort and Casino’s golf-related properties.

At a public hearing in Buffalo on the governor’s proposal to provide universal health care in New York, speakers agreed that they want to achieve that, but they couldn’t agree on how to get there.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case about New York’s system of choosing judicial candidates.

The Independence Party, which has been drawing more and more members from the voters who are tired with the two-party system, is going national with the hopes of running a candidate for president in 2008.

A federal report released yesterday found that New York airports come in last place for on-time arrivals.

With his poll numbers sagging in New York, Gov. Eliot Spitzer is in Texas today raising money for his expected re-election bid in 2010, aides said.

The Democratic governor is paying for the trip to Houston and Dallas through his campaign account, aides said.

Yet there was no word today on who is hosting the events and much the trip expects to raise.

The trip comes as Republicans continue to criticize Spitzer on his aides alleged plot earlier this year to smear Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno for using state aircraft to travel to political events in New York City.
A Quinnipiac University poll Tuesday showed 78 percent of voters believe Spitzer should testify under oath about what he knew of the scandal.

The case has taken a toll on Spitzer’s approval rating, which is at 47 percent in the poll, consistent with his approval rating in July.

The state Comptroller’s Office just announced that people across the country are receiving e-mails claiming to be sent from the agency’s Office of Unclaimed Funds and telling them that they have a large inheritance. The fraudulent e-mails direct recipients to call a number in New York’s 718 area code to collect their money.

“My office does not initiate contact with anyone regarding unclaimed funds by e-mail. If you receive this type of e-mail, do not reply or call the phone number included in the e-mail,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement. “Anyone receiving this kind of e-mail should call my office immediately.”

DiNapoli said his office has referred the matter to federal law-enforcement officials. A warning message is posted on the agency’s Web site. The Comptroller’s Office learned of the scam yesterday, when someone in Kansas who had received the e-mail contacted the agency.

The office keeps a list on its Web site—www. osc.state.ny.us—of people who have unclaimed funds being safeguarded by the comptroller. Individuals can call 800-221-9311.

To report a fraudulent e-mail, call the Comptroller’s Office at 888-672-4555. To see a copy of the e-mail, click here.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer gave a tough-talking speech this morning at Fordham University, taking on opponents who are criticizing his plan to give drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants and to expand health insurance for children.

“No amount of scare tactics that equate immigrants with terrorists will keep us from implementing changes to our driver’s license system that we know are needed to inrease public safety and homeland security,” Spitzer said in prepared remarks.

“And no amount of fear-mongering will keep us from fighting for health insurance for every child.

The Democratic governor has been under fire for the drivers’ license plan by Republicans who fear that giving drivers’ licenses to illegals will aid terrorists. The expansion of federal SCHIP program to provide health coverage to children has been rebuked by President Bush, leading New York and seven other states to sue the federal government on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno took a swipe at Assembly Democrats for supporting Spitzer’s drivers’ license policy.

“The Assembly has constantly and continually coddled criminals,” he said on an Albany radio show this morning. “They always favor leniency toward criminals.”

At a news conference he is holding this morning, Gov. Eliot Spitzer will defend his recent decisions to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses and to sue the Bush administration (along with six other states) for blocking an expansion of the federal-state children’s health insurance program in New York.

The governor took some heat yesterday from the state chairman of the Conservative Party, who said, “The safety of America is at stake” because of Spitzer’s policy change.

Most counties didn’t take the state up on its offer to swap future sales tax revenue to pay for Medicaid costs. Monroe County is the only one participating.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider overturning a state law that requires employers, including religious institutions, provide insurance coverage for contraceptives.

Lawmakers are proposing a bill that would create sales-tax free downtown business districts across upstate New York.

Spit secretly swabbed from a sidewalk in 1974 was the key to solving an unsolved 1974 case in which a woman was raped and murdered. The trial is underway.

Democratic presidential candidates continued to raise a lot more campaign cash in the past three months than their GOP rivals.

   Gov. Spitzer appears to be winning the public-relations battle associated with the “Troopegate’’ scandal, but most voters still want him to testify under oath about what he knows about it, according to a new poll.

   The Quinnipiac Poll, released today, found that his approval rating is 47-34 percent, down a little from July, but still better than that of his political antagonist, Senate Majoirty Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick. More disapprove (39 percent) of the job Bruno  is doing than approve (30 percent), according to the independent poll.

  On the other hand, voters believe, 56 percent to 25 percent, that Spitzer knew what his aides were up to when they had the State Police track Bruno’s movements while he was in New York City – something Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said was an abuse of power. And by 78 percent to 17 percent, vtoers want Spitzer to testify under oath about the matter.

  Still, 56 percent said they think the governor is “honest and trustworthy,’’ compared to 26 percent who don’t think so. For Bruno, 34 percent say he isn’t trustworthy, compared to 26 percent who think he is. The rest are undecided.

  “Troopergate is bad news for Gov. Eliot Spitzer, but the good bnews is job-approval plunge has leveled off,’’ said Quinnipiax pollster Maurice Carroll.

   The poll questioned 1,504 registered voters, and has an error margin of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been knocking the Bush administration over new rules that block states from expanding health care for children.

So he has just announced that states plan to sue the Bush Administration for violating provisions of the federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which provides health coverage for children in families who can’t afford private insurance.

Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, Arizona, California and New Hampshire will also be part of the suit.

In August, the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) imposed new rules that block states from expanding their children’s health insurance programs.

Congress is trying undo the changes, but Bush said he would veto it.

The program is aimed at helping familes who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but yet can’t afford private insurance. Still, the Bush administration has argued that raising the income limits to make more children eligible is irresponsible and a move toward nationalized health care.