If Stony Brook were run by pokemon, this is what it would look like.

On Monday October 26 a series of power outages began at Stony Brook University. These outages affected areas from Roosevelt Quad to the Engineering buildings and even buildings on South Campus. Power wasn’t restored to normal until November 2, one week from when the problem started. Generators were in place, though, while they worked to fix the problem.

In a statement released by President Samuel Stanley on this major issue, he cited that the problem was caused by “a structural failure of an underground hot water pipe, which probably led to the failure of nearby high voltage feeder cables, causing the loss of electrical power.”

With the state of New York in a budget crisis, the SUNY system and Stony Brook University have been hit particularly hard. With funding being cut to SUNY schools due to the Governor’s Deficit Reduction Plan, issues like the power outages may arise again.

“To add to our problems, I am concerned that this new series of budget cuts will make it even more difficult to deal with these kinds of emergencies in the future, both by reducing further monies available for preventative maintenance and for emergency response support staff,” said Stanley in his release.

The residents living in Roosevelt Quad were hit especially hard by these power outages for the obvious reasons that they have to live there. They had no hot water, heat or electricity for two days. That can be extremely difficult to deal with especially if you have work that needs to be done for classes.

“I went out to play soccer, and when I got back it was completely dark in the dorms,” said Kevin David, a freshman who lives in Greeley, a building in the Roosevelt Quad. “I couldn’t take a shower because there was no hot water and it was really dark.”

Roosevelt Quad would finally get power back that Wednesday morning, when the workers set up small generators to start giving electricity back to the building. However, these people still had to live like this for two days on cold nights.

“They had little generators outside the dorms that were really loud,” said Ed Fillemyr, a freshman living inside Greeley. “I’m kind of used to the noise because of the construction going on right next door, but for the people on the other side of the building that aren’t used to that, they started to complain.”

Some classes were also affected by these power outages. However, it did seem a little confusing how Stony Brook was putting out these messages. At first, a SOLAR message went out stating that classes in the specified buildings were canceled for the day due to the power outages. Later on though, on the website it stated that classes were back on because the power was back on in the buildings. This was confusing for some.

“On Monday I got a SOLAR message saying that my class was cancelled due to the power outages so I didn’t go,” said Leo DeMino, a senior engineering major. “But only half of the Heavy Engineering building was out of power and my class was in the half that had power, so they held class and I missed my extra credit assignment.”

With the state deficit looming overhead, it is difficult to find ways to fix major problems on campuses such as old pipes, but it needs to be done. The SUNY system needs to find a way to fix these problems.

In the 08-09 budget, Paterson cut $146M from SUNY while trustees approved a tuition hike (the super-majority of which went directly into the state’s coffers). It’s the darndest thing, though: New York spends three times as much on health care as it does on education. Now, certainly, the proposed plan includes cuts to Medicaid… But are cuts the appropriate answer?

Let’s talk about health care in New York. New York had the fourth highest per capita spending on health care ($6,535) as of 2007. New York also has some of the highest insurance premiums. Nationwide, medicaid enrollment has had a positive correlation with unemployment (many people rely upon their employers to provide health care), the effect of which has been obvious: greater strain on the budget and poor, myopic decisions by state politicians.

One of the reasons for such high premiums in New York has to do with the way in which we’ve pursued health care reform (very similar to the way Obama hopes to address the national health care system). Under Cuomo, state regulation of health care resulted in two well-intentioned but horrible rules: (1) insurance companies can’t adjust prices based on health/age and (2) insurance companies can’t deny anyone coverage who can afford it.

Here’s the thing: the major non-profit provider of health care at the time (who, might I add, endorsed these regulations in an effort to prop itself up against the insurance companies) failed to report that because of these kinds of mandates it had been suffering losses and eventually dropped out of the game entirely. This resulted in private insurance companies raising their premiums across the board in order to maintain profits (nearly a third of which go toward marketing and CEO salaries, mind you) which has helped to herd people into Medicaid.

Parente and Bragdon, writing in the Wall Street Journal, advocate “market based reforms”. These sound neat and it’s easy for us to say that government interference has caused New York’s health care problem and therefore contributed to budget concerns, but this is a shallow view of a complex issue. The problem here is profit. The problem here is “competition”. The problem here is the commodification of health and the ensuing class-based discrimination and subsequent hands-free (or not so free) genocide (45,000 uninsured die each year).

If you believe that health care is a human right and that therefore we must find the most optimal solution to ensure universal, quality coverage as well as economic stability within that solution then we’re on the same page.

I’ll reiterate that around 1/3 of insurance premiums go toward marketing and CEO salaries, two things I fail to see as integral to patient care and research and development. The reason premiums skyrocketed after New York’s petty health care reform efforts doesn’t just have to do with breaking even and covering the cost of high-risk clients who they’re now forced to cover. It has to do with meeting that criteria and then surpassing it, not only to reproduce CEO salaries but to increase those salaries! That’s the thing about for profit industry: it’s all about the growth of profit.

So, peep the strategy:

Let’s ditch these high rollers and archaic class-based health care system and establish a state-wide single payer system. Medicare for all. A single, public entity propped up by a progressive tax which will be, without a doubt, cheaper than most New Yorkers’ current premiums as well as an employer tax only for those employers who currently provide health care which will almost certainly be cheaper than what they currently pay for their employees under-coverage.

A single payer system doesn’t require a CEO salary or marketing and so all of that money can go to providing care, research and development and new technology. A single payer system doesn’t require a wasteful and horrendously expensive system of paperwork and filing. A single payer system doesn’t include the legal fees that come from dealing with clients you’ve denied coverage. Best of all: a single payer system may be the best antidote to an ailing state economy.