Western New York, alongside regions across the country, faces healthcare disaster due to the dysfunction of America’s privatized healthcare system being accelerated by federal cuts and state inaction. The Buffalo chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has run a campaign for over a year, Back Off BNP, researching, educating, and organizing WNY residents around the collaboration of local hospital systems, health insurers, and major corporations in the Buffalo Niagara Partnership (BNP).
“Quality healthcare is not just a necessity for us and our kids, it is a human right. It’s unacceptable that we live in fear of insurers, or of bosses dangling healthcare benefits like a carrot over our heads.“
The campaign seeks to publicize the chamber of commerce’s political influence in favor of private capital and corporations in the state, and against the solution of universal healthcare in New York state, legislation called the New York Health Act (NYHA; NY State Senate Bill 2023-S7590 and Assembly Bill A7897). DSA calls for an urgent focus on NYHA this 2026 legislative session as premiums for WNYers skyrocket to unsustainable amounts due to commercial health insurance plans seeking to offset Medicaid cuts and the effects of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
“Private health insurers, such as Independent Health, are being empowered to deny therapeutic and rehabilitative services to patients through arbitrarily and automatically requiring prior authorization. They make massive amounts of money to deny healthcare, get in the way of treatment, and I see them inflict cruelty and desertion on stroke and traumatic brain injury patients,” said Olivia Colgrove, co-chair of the Buffalo DSA Healthcare Committee that organized the picket and a speech-language pathologist. The issue referenced by Colgrove has received high-profile coverage in The Guardian, focusing on Kaleida (whose president and CEO sits on the board of BNP).
“We have been volunteers sounding the alarm on the rollback of what little public healthcare still exists, and the crisis that expansion of the role of private insurers in these programs represents. Trump’s second term is already showing how fragile a system based on private insurance is,” said Moira Madden, co-chair of the Buffalo DSA Healthcare Committee and emergency mental health caseworker. “It’s past time for urgency in the movement for universal healthcare on the state level (e.g. NYHA), as a way to protect against this worsening dysfunction. January 2026 begins a new state legislative session, and a new opportunity for public advocacy and oversight of anti-NYHA lobbyists.”
“Quality healthcare is not just a necessity for us and our kids, it is a human right. It’s unacceptable that we live in fear of insurers, or of bosses dangling healthcare benefits like a carrot over our heads. I am proud to stand with Buffalo DSA, as our campaign and chapter fight for the New York Health Act,” said Adam Bojak, Buffalo DSA member and candidate for state assembly in district 149.
On January 8, 2026 the Buffalo Niagara Partnership will be presenting their lobbying agenda for the year to their political allies at the Jazzboline restaurant in Amherst, from 4-7pm. Buffalo DSA has once again been organizing their membership, sympathetic organizations, and the signatories to their Back Off BNP campaign so far to picket the event and BNP’s longstanding role in opposing the NYHA solution to the healthcare crisis that could be led by New York.
More on NYHA and BNP
NYHA would create statewide, universal, “single payer” healthcare, meaning if passed, all New Yorkers would be enrolled in a single, public insurance program. All services requiring a medical professional of the patient’s choice would be fully covered, without extraneous fees or the negative, profit-motivated intervention of a private insurer.
Buffalo DSA has long rallied around NYHA’s passage alongside like-minded groups and unions statewide, based on its positive projected outcomes for workers’ rights, families, and individuals in all stages of life in New York, as well as the state’s health systems. NYHA, according to the organization, would provide $80 billion in savings over 10 years, as a self-sustaining program through the state’s progressive tax structure. Per their research, New York would not need to cut any essential or existing social programs to fund NYHA, and would create ~150,000 new jobs in the public sector, with retraining for and rehiring of current private insurance workers. Public hospitals would benefit from a higher reimbursement rate, which would lower chances of hospital closures, improving health outcomes for New Yorkers.
The corresponding legislation for NYHA has stalled over the course of several sessions, in part due to lobbyists like the Buffalo Niagara Partnership; the region’s most-utilized health insurers hold leadership on the BNP board and the organization enjoys close ties with local politicians. As Buffalo DSA states in its report on NYHA Opposition, the BNP’s Memorandum of Opposition against these bills, and its membership in an untraceable campaign called “Realities of Single Payer” are examples of their lack of care for the region’s residents. “The way the BNP has wielded its power to lobby against universal healthcare is cruel and unacceptable,” said Madden. “Everyday working people, who outnumber the executives of the BNP, deserve a healthcare system that works for everyone. Anti-NYHA lobbying only serves to enrich the insurance and health system executives on the leadership board.”
Western New York residents are encouraged to visit Buffalo DSA’s campaign website to learn more about the New York Health Act and sign the organization’s petition. Those interested in volunteering for further campaigning are encouraged to contact the chapter; the group says no previous campaign experience is required.
Buffalo DSA, Inc. is a member dues funded and member-directed not-for-profit in the State of New York. Democratic Socialists of America believe both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. Join Buffalo DSA by visiting buffalodsa.org.
