LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — When Americans elect a medical doctor to political office, they expect a proactive public health advocate. Councilman Paul Salzberg, MD, proved to be just that at the April 13 meeting of the Cochecton town board.

As the board’s liaison with the Lower Hudson Valley Chapter of the Senior Legislative Action Committee (SLAC), Salzberg attended a public hearing on the New York Health Act (NYHA). The proposed state legislation has been passed by the Assembly and is now awaiting vote in the Senate.

Salzberg said that NYHA would provide universal, comprehensive healthcare coverage free of charge to all New York State residents, regardless of age, state of health, or income level.

He went on to say that he and the New York State Academy of Family Physicians, a professional organization comprising physicians, board certified in the practice of family medicine, wholeheartedly endorse the bill, as do other primary care practitioners, among them licensed nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Salzberg said that, like Medicare, NYHA would be a single-payer healthcare insurance system. But unlike Medicare, NYHA would provide free comprehensive healthcare coverage that includes dental and vision care as well as free prosthetics, such as eyeglasses, contact lenses, hearing aids and artificial limbs, not currently covered under Medicare.

Sponsored by Richard Gottfried, chair of the Assembly Health Committee since 1987 and a nationally-recognized healthcare policymaker, the bill has been in draft form since 1999. But since the advent of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), it has been gaining acceptance from public and medical community alike.

On March 21, 2013, the Sullivan County Legislature passed a resolution urging enactment of an earlier draft of the bill. The text of that resolution is available at www.nysenior.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Sullivan-resolution-NY-Health.pdf.

To view full text of the bill itself, see assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A05062&term=&Summary=Y&Actions=Y&Votes=Y&Memo=Y&Text=Y.

To participate in a petition supporting NYHA, visit www.nysenior.org/wordpress/?page_id=147.

In other business, the rites of spring announced by Supervisor Gary Maas included two town cleaning plans. Litter Pluck Week officially runs from April 23 to May 1, but volunteers are sought for year-round plucking as well. Anyone interested in reducing litter along roads and highways in Cochecton is asked to call Jerry Yavarkovsky, chairman of Keep Cochecton Clean, at 845/932-8210. Collection bags can be picked up at the town clerk’s office at 74 Smales Rd. in Lake Huntington on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Pluckers are asked to separate recyclables and non-recyclables.

Annual cleanup days are May 21 and 22. Town residents can bring bulk items for disposal to the old town hall/highway department garage at 10 Mitchell Pond East Rd. in Lake Huntington from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both days. Prohibited materials include tires, yard waste, full paint cans, petroleum products, pesticides, hazardous waste, propane tanks, household garbage, computers, computer monitors, and televisions and fluorescent light bulbs. For complete details, see “A Message from the Supervisor” on the town’s website townofcochectonny.org.

The board recessed until April 27 at 6:30 p.m., when it will determine the conditions under which the town will permit commercial solar farms.