Letters

Last year, I started a governmental relations company called Accabonac Strategies. Accabonac specializes in helping businesses, nonprofits, and labor and trade organizations interact with New York State government agencies such as the Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. On a legislative level, we draft legislation and develop strategies for implementation, passage by the legislature, and enactment by the governor.

Several clients have retained my firm to address recent changes made by Governor Kathy Hochul to the 2015 New York State No Surprise Billing Act. The governor’s changes, which were buried in the 2020 executive budget, deferred insurance reimbursement billing disputes to a federal process that was significantly less robust and favored big insurance over patients and their doctors.

To address this egregious degradation of state residents’ rights, I drafted bill numbers S5638, sponsored by Senator Robert Jackson (D-Harlem), and A7120, sponsored by Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Richmond Hill).

In addition to the above, I have been retained to reverse Governor Hochul’s recent change to the New York State Health Insurance Program out-of-network benefit. On July 1, the changes implemented changed patient/doctor reimbursements from the nationally accepted nonprofit fair health standard to Medicare plus 275 percent.

Although, at first, 275 percent sounds like a high number, depending on the procedure, the patient will see out-of-pocket cost increase from 300 to over 3,000 percent. Aside from benefiting the big health insurance carrier, United Healthcare, state and municipal employees and retirees (1.8 million enrollees) saw no reduction in premiums.

Similarly, to address this egregious degradation of 1.8 million public active and retired employees, I drafted Bill S5639, sponsored by Senator Robert Jackson (D-Harlem), and A7055, sponsored by Assemblyman John McDonald, (D-Cohoes).

As a Suffolk County legislator, I will never abandon public employees and advocate to protect the integrity of their collective bargaining agreements and the New York State Taylor Law. The government’s only assets are the employees who perform every critical service the government provides for our communities.

I also will bring decades of legislative and governmental experience analyzing government budgets, researching and developing legislation, and implementing adopted policies. These and many other skills will be critical to serving the residents of the South Fork, and this is why I ask for a vote on Election Day.

If you have any questions about the above, please feel free to contact me by text to 631-324-0528, or email info@vilarforsuffolk.com.

Manny Vilar

Springs

Vilar is a Republican candidate for Suffolk County legislator — Ed.