New York State Concurrence Page (2026)

Email hotline: LWV.Update4Convention@gmail.com

The LWV of Port Washington-Manhasset (PWM) of NY, along with the New York State and Vermont State Leagues, asks other state and local Leagues to support consideration of a Concurrence at National Convention 2026 that would update the current LWV National position on Privatization (2012). 

PLEASE HELP US! Here’s What, Why and How!

Table of Contents

  1. Overview of the NY(PWM) update
  2. Essential Documents
  3. HOW TO HELP: Ways your League can Support this Concurrence
  4. Definitions
  5. What new advocacy will this Privatization position update permit?
  6. Concurrence requirements and information
  7. Learn More: Context and Studies

1. Overview

Starting Points.

To improve health care for themselves and for the general well-being of the whole population, the Health Care Taskforce in LWV-NY and several local Leagues see many legislative and regulatory steps that could be taken.  In particular, they would like to advocate against current corporate practices that siphon money out of health care; they want to support the efforts of public officials who want to stop the flow of our health care taxes into the hands of private companies, especially ones that are not acting in the public interest. Indeed, with respect to public goods like health care and public health, the private sector mandate to make a profit has a history of resulting in threats to public safety, reduced services, and increased costs to consumers and government to pay off corporate debt expenses. (See Cohen & Mikaelian, 2021, The Privatization of Everything. pdf of introduction)

Not Unique to Health Care. The steps the health care advocates feel they need to take are not unique to health care.  Similar advocacy would help improve a range of ESSENTIAL SERVICES, such as jails, clean water, sanitation and other utilities where control has been given over to private investors who treat them like any other commodity, as a source of cash and not a public resource.

These are topics the League has already submitted to rigorous study, with four official studies in the last two decades.  The current position in Impact on Issues was adopted in 2012, but according to its history, the Privatization position has not been used. 

Making the position more useful, so it can guide needed League advocacy

**Updating the position. The NY (PWM) Privatization Update builds on the study and the Update LWV-Vermont adopted in 2023 for use within its state. In particular, NY (PWM) focuses our attention on four crucial elements that are IMPLICIT in the current US Privatization Position and the Update makes them EXPLICIT. It–

  • Clarifies its scope
  • Provides a clearer measure of “failure to perform”
  • “Adds teeth” to its recommendation for best practices.

**Focusing advocacy on the nationwide trend of Privatization and its relationship to the League mission.

the siphoning of public funding (taxes) into corporate profits and away from critical services aimed “to preserve the common good, to protect national or local security or to meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of society.”[1]

[1] US Privatization Position, p.76 of https://www.lwv.org/sites/default/files/2024-12/ImpactOnIssues_2024-FINAL-DIGITAL.pdf

2. Essential Documents

3. HOW TO HELP: Ways your League can Support this Concurrence

Pave the way for discussion and a vote on the Update Concurrence at the 2026 Convention,

[“Going an extra mile,” STEPS for a local League to adopt the NY position by concurrence (for itself) – it’s likely too late for this this year… but let us know if you’re interested in it.]

4. Definitions

5. What new advocacy will this Privatization position update permit?

6. Concurrence requirements (per LWVUS by-laws)

7. Learn More: Context and Studies

Need to reach us? Use our “email hotline”: LWV.Update4Convention@gmail.com

Running list of relevant articles

Running list of video on privatization.

Issues to consider in deciding whether to support the NY update:

Issue One, the LWVUS position on Privatization covers the privatization of all public goods (listed in the position) — and the Vermont study group focused on the principles governing privatization of those public goods, although they often used healthcare as the key example since it is the most privatized of all American public goods.  In fact, the principles governing privatization also apply in other domains, for example, privatized jails, private schools that used public money, utilities, and other.

Issue Two. The National League position on Privatization is not about free markets or capitalism in general nor about allowing the private sector to earn profits — instead it provides guidance to local, state, and national Leagues on legislation and regulation of services that the League considers essential “to preserve the common good, to protect national or local security or to meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of society” — and only those services. By adding the “fiduciary duty” standard, the Update will allow Leagues to advocate for legislation or regulation of both for-profit and nonprofit entities that fail to meet that standard.

How does the New York Update differ from the Vermont position

After months of study and a consensus meeting, the League of Women Voters of Vermont Board of Directors approved a new position and has been both educating and advocating with it at the local and state levels. However, when LWVVT proposed a national update at the 2024 Convention, there appeared to be insufficient clarity about why it was needed, and the measure was not adopted.

League health care advocates across New York who advocate for healthcare reform considered a number of bills that would further limit privatization and/or remove private middlemen from health care. Sadly, their healthcare posiiton could not support advocacy in favor of those bills, nor could use the national position on privatization. They saw the new 2023 Vermont position as useful but, while educating NY League members about it, they decided to streamline it to make it easier to explain (and thereby to adopt).

Local Leagues are free to adopt their position by concurrence (to address local privatization challenges, for example, local water, energy, roads, broadband, or climate initiatives). State Leagues that adopt the update can (like NYS) address the Medicaid issue, which new laws are making ever more important in every state.

To allow League members across the country to benefit from the work of Vermont’s study, New York has streamlined the Vermont position and is now asking for your help in getting it on the Convention agenda so it can be discussed and, we hope, adopted by concurrence.

Videos to help you and your League get our new privatization position on the Convention agenda.

Please use the linked webform for comments and suggestions, or send an email to the Concurrence email: lwv.Update4Convention@gmail.com 

(Prepared by the LWV Health Care Interest Group on behalf of LWPWM)

Health Care Reform for the US