Too Many Empty Chairs
An Open Letter To NY State Senator James Skoufis
It’s barely seven a.m. at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. The sun isn’t even awake yet. Snow and rain is falling outside, and it’s falling pretty good, a reminder that winter continues. Footsteps echo across the tiled floor, staff reporting for duty. I’m tucked in a corner, leaning against the wall with a book in my hand.
My father is inside with my brother. My brother is being prepped for an ablation. I know the nurses will take good care of him. My father is texting me, letting me know that he will be taken in soon.
I lower my book and look around the waiting room. Empty chairs. A lot of empty chairs. When I was here for my surgery last May, this waiting room was filled with people, and maybe it’s early now. But as the hours slipped by, there are still empty chairs. A lot of empty chairs.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams is pushing hard his campaign to remove New York City retirees off their medical insurance and plant them onto a new plan, one that may not accept pre-existing conditions. I hear my father stressing about it almost every night at dinner, concerned for himself, my mother and my two disabled brothers, one of my brothers that is getting ready for surgery right now.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” my father said. “We may not even be allowed to change medical plans.”
I watch an older woman wander over to me. She glances out the window. The snow has now gone to all rain. She doesn’t look at me but turns to watch the staff come and go, the doors to the prep area slamming shut, an ugly echo across the hall. She disappears into her phone, shutting the world out, and I turn another page. But I cannot help but think that when July comes and if Mayor Adams has his way, there will be a lot more empty chairs.
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