Lt. Gov. Delgado: Democrats worry too much about maintaining a broken system
New York's Lt. Gov. discusses his support for the New York Health Act, arguing single-payer reforms would relieve working-class New Yorkers from crippling healthcare costs.
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Today’s episode features New York’s Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor against incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Episode Transcript
BJ Mendelson: This is The Finley, produced and presented by The Monroe Gazette. I’m your host, BJ Mendelson.
Joining us on the show is Lt. Gov Antonio Delgado, who will be challenging Governor Kathy Hochul in next year’s Democratic Primary for Governor.
I wanted to speak with Mr. Delgado after hearing about his enthusiastic support for the New York Health Act.
We’ve covered the NY Health Act before at The Monroe Gazette. So if you missed that story, we’ll have a link to our interview with Melanie D’Arrigo, who is the Executive Director of the Campaign for New York Health.
For our listeners in Orange County, you should know that State Senator James G. Skoufis does not support the New York Health Act. Some steering committee members of Hands Off Hudson Valley, had a meeting with Mr. Skoufis about this bill as well as the New York For All Act. (And, full disclosure, I am a member of that steering committee.)
Mr. Skoufis stated his support for the New York For All Act, which is legislation you will hear me touch on in this interview with the Lt. Gov.
But when Mr. Skoufis was asked about the New York Health Act, he started to mumble and then complain that it would be too expensive to pass.
I asked Mr. Delgado to reply to this argument by Skoufis concerning the cost of the New York Health Act. Let’s get to the interview, and I’ll see you on the other side of it.
But First, a Reminder as to Why New York For All Matters:
Video: Area resident Eddie Blanco bravely confronts masked I.C.E. agents outside of his store in the Village of Monroe. Mr. Blanco has twice spoken out about the use of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to police the Town of Monroe because of the financial arrangement that exists between I.C.E. and the Sheriff’s Department.
I’d love to see the local MAGA schmucks calling Eddie, and the other residents who expressed concerns about I.C.E. at the 10/6 and 10/20 Monroe Town Board meetings “props” to their face.
Because below is a packed house at St. Anastasia’s Church on Saturday, October 25th, where members of the community got to share their concerns about I.C.E. with the Village Police Chief, Darwin Guzman.
I couldn’t help but notice that none of our local MAGA trolls were in attendance that evening.
I guess they were afraid to call our latino brothers and sisters “props” to their face.
How very white of them.
Our Interview WIth Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado
BJ Mendelson: So I don’t know how familiar you are with Orange County, but we’re home to Orange County Correctional, which has a long history of working with I.C.E. A lot of the detainees that are kidnapped by I.C.E, for lack of better description, are brought up to Orange County Correctional. They’ve been sued a number of times.
The New York ACLU has been documenting lot of the issues there.
And in our area, we also have in Newburgh and here in Monroe, where we have a big Latino population, ICE agents harassing our residents and refusing to provide identification.
So I know that there’s a lot of stuff to talk about, but I really felt I needed to ask you about the New York for All Act and the Melt Act and how important it is to get those things passed.
New York State Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado: Yeah, I certainly have... I’m very clear about the need to pass the New York for All Act. You know, we are in a position where a lot of our neighbors, family, friends are being... put in very inhumane situations and done so by masked federal I.C.E. agents. And there are ways to push back against Trump’s dragnet that we’re not currently pursuing.
And one of those would be the New York for All Act, which in part would go away with 287G agreements, but also it would make it clear that, we’re not going to cooperate with an immigration enforcement policy that totally does away with due process to disregard people’s rights.
BJ: The issue that we’re encountering is that there is no transparency on the part of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. They either, if you put in a FOIL request, they’ll tell you that no documents exist, or they will essentially lie to you. And so when you have a department like that, that’s belligerent, is there anything else that the state could do to make sure that our brothers and sisters who are being detained, most of them without criminal convictions, are treated the right way?
Video: The Monroe Gazette had a lengthy conversation with the people who filmed this video in the Newburgh Target parking lot on Friday, August 29th, 2025.
One of the people in the video is an organizer with the NYC ACLU. The Orange County sheriff can be seen getting out of the vehicle of an unidentified man. When the unidentified man was asked what he was doing with the deputy, he said, “I.C.E. raids.”
A spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department disputed this claim, stating, ““We are aware of the information being circulated on social media and being shared throughout the community that suggests the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is conducting ‘ICE Raids’. We understand the concern this has raised. We would like to clarify: The Orange County Sheriff’s Office was in the Newburgh area last week, conducting local police and sheriff’s operations; Deputies were not conducting an immigration enforcement operation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.”
The NYC ACLU, upon reviewing the Sheriff’s statement said: “Last week a sheriff’s deputy exited the car of a driver who is heard on video suggesting that the enforcement action last week was an ICE raid. Our team raised concerns and asked questions. Despite the Sheriff’s attempt to clarify, he has not yet explained this interaction.”
When The Monroe Gazette filed a FOIL request for all sheriff activity that took place that day at the Newburgh Target parking lot, we were told, “We have reviewed your Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request. Pursuant to Public Officers Law §89(3), this shall certify that after a diligent search, we have been unable to locate any records responsive to your request.”
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado: I think passing legislation and laws that create an environment of accountability, that create an environment of obligation, is one of the most important steps. When you create ambiguity in the system, when you create grey areas or enable those grey areas to persist, that they can be exploited by actors. And so it is important to lay down a clear groundwork to make sure that people understand the rules of world and what is going to be permitted and what is not.
BJ: So my dad was a teacher and vice principal in the Bronx for almost 40 years. Since the DiBlasio administration and then continued under Mayor Adams, there’s been a push to move to New York City retirees like my dad onto Medicare Advantage plans, which offers less coverage and costs retirees on fixed income even more money.
So I’d like to start there and just ask you about that situation specifically, because I think it ties into our larger discussion on the New York Health Act.
So in the situation involving the retirees, how can the New York Health Act help them?
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado: Well, I mean, I think what we are seeing with retirees and anybody for that matter who is relying on a broken health care system, is that whenever you have an insurance based system that dominates the way in which either those who are on those insurance or those who are not, the mechanisms by which we fund plans, the mechanisms by which how comprehensive things can actually be and are in many respects dictated indirectly or indirectly by the reality of the insurance marketplace and to the detriment of our seniors, to the detriment of anybody for that matter who is trying to find affordable care.
And for a long time, we have accepted this idea in America that we are okay with paying for insurance when it comes to healthcare, rather than just paying for healthcare.
And when you pay for insurance, which you’re basically paying for, is a system that is designed to exploit you and to extract profit at your expense. The New York Health Act, in my estimation, is a complete and full recognition of that cruel reality. It actually treats healthcare as a basic right in a way that up to this point, it simply hasn’t been.
BJ: Yeah. And so just in the situation in New York City retirees, you support them staying on the plans that they have, is that right?
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado: I support making sure that they have options where that plan is more comprehensive. Pushing them off a plan where they have less coverage, where they have less services is not remotely the direction we should be going in.
BJ Mendelson: For our listeners, something we’ve talked about a lot is the MAGA Murder Bill, or AKA the One Big Beautiful Bill. The University of Pennsylvania shows that it could cause up to 51,000 preventable deaths each year. And the Fiscal Policy Institute here in New York says that of the 156 hospitals, up to 70 of them could face potential foreclosure. So I was hoping you were able to speak about how the New York Health Act could help keep those hospitals open, especially upstate.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado: First of all, it’s important to understand that we are talking about the amount of money that Trump has now put on the table to cut, particularly our rural hospitals, and how they’re going to ultimately suffer from funding, which certainly will hurt the personnel funding as well. The New York Health Act has tremendous amounts of cost savings. Upwards of $60 billion when you get beyond of what the insurance infrastructure makes into the system, right? Whether it’s the middleman, whether it’s the bureaucracy, whether it’s the red tape. When you start adding all of these added layers into the equation, you have costs that have very little to do with providing healthcare, and more to do with the management of a system that is bloated and that extracts value from the people.
So whether it’s making sure that our hospitals are actually invested and supported in, and don’t have to account for all the baked in costs associated with a monopolistic insurance system, or making sure that we have the ability to leverage those savings to pick our providers more ... And at the end of the day, ultimately staff these hospitals with qualified physicians and providers, and making sure that we have comprehensive plans that folks can rely on that include mental health, that include dental, that include vision, that include home care. These are the kind of things that we can directly invest in when we get beyond the system of care that is led to the insurance market place.
BJ: As far back as 2018, the conservative Rand Corporation had said New York would save $11.4 billion.
I’m part of a group that’s met with our state senator, James G. Skoufis, and he has sort of just told them, either because he’s unwilling to support the bill or for whatever his reasons, he’s told them that the New York Health Act is too expensive to pass. So I have a feeling he’s not the only state senator that has that position. And I was hoping that you might be able to speak to the state senators and assemblymen, or assembly people who also have that position. What would you say to them?
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado: Well, I’m not going to speak ... to anyone elected official or directly at anyone elected official because in my estimation, it’s always important as someone who’s in the executive to think about all the different ways to build relationships, to collaborate with colleagues in legislative matters. I respect everybody’s point of view on this. And I think part of being a leader, part of being somebody who is serving in the executive branch ... it’s incumbent on that leader to figure out ways to engage with the legislative body that is collaborative and that is empowering. And there’s no doubt that this would be a big undertaking. There’s no doubt that this will certainly fundamentally change the nature of our system. And it’s important for folks like myself and other advocates for this legislation to be able to drive on the facts that there are tremendous amounts of cost savings that will be produced by this.
So, in many respects it would pay for itself, particularly over time. And yes, there would be a transitional aspect that will require some real effort fiscally, but ultimately, there’s a massive impact of that. That far perceives the value of that upfront cost and we have to be in a position where we’re willing to make that transition because what we don’t, by the way, will continue to have a system where people are literally losing their lives as result. So people are literally being forced to go bankrupt to pay for medication as a result. And so it’s both a contrast to what we currently have, which is fundamentally broken, and an aspirational call for what could be, which would actually be treating healthcare as a human right.
BJ: So my last question is, Orange County is usually thought of as being very Republican. You know, we’ve got a lot of former NYPD and FDNY.
I’ve been covering local news here for about two years. I can tell you that’s not true.
What is true is that a lot of people here feel like the Democratic Party no longer supports the working class, that they feel like around here they support the real estate developers. So I was hoping you could speak to those people for a moment about the New York Health Act and your vision of the Democratic Party because it’s absolutely different from what I think a lot of people are getting from Governor Hochul with her preferential treatment of the wealthy and the well-connected.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado: I appreciate that. I would say fundamentally, whether you’re a Democrat, whether you’re Republican, whether you’re independent, what you care about is economic security. You want to be able to wake up every day and feel like your economic situation isn’t perilous and isn’t likely to be subjected to a medical emergency that could literally bankrupt you and or your family. And yet that’s exactly what New Yorkers face too many.
The vast majority of New Yorkers across the state are living in a situation of economic insecurity in part because of our broken health care system and when you have for example small business owners or family-owned farmers who are struggling with the skyrocketing premiums that they now have to deal with health care plans that they don’t have to provide to their employees How do you mistake those farmers particularly in the more rural parts of the state?
How do you expect those farmers, those small business owners to sustain themselves if those health insurance claims continue, and costs continue to go up?
In contrast, the New York Health Act would actually allow our small businesses and our employers to have cost savings that would not otherwise be there. And the same thing if you’re an employee, if you are wedded to your job because you need healthcare and you are ultimately not being put in a position where you feel free to go seek any other opportunity you think might be better for you or your family separate and apart from healthcare, which has a downward effect on the economy.
It has a sense of being trapped where you are. And that is not economic freedom. Democrats have spent too much time, I would argue, worrying about maintaining a system that is broken. A system that enriches insurance companies, a system that enriches those who have a lot, ultimately, oftentimes at the expense of those who have very little.
And if we want to connect with folks across the political spectrum, we need to be able to put forth policies that demonstrate in their impact, not policies that just sort of manage a broken status quo.
Outro:
That’s our show.
If you haven’t already done so, make sure you get out there and vote. Early Voting is now underway in New York.
If you live in the Town of Monroe and the Town of Woodbury, remember to vote on the Preserve Monroe Line and the We The People of Woodbury Line. Except for one dude.
We are featuring brand new episodes of The Finley every day between now and Election Day, so I’ll see you tomorrow.