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Speaker Julie Madden outlines affordability agenda targeting healthcare, insurance, procurement and housing
Summary
At an ABNY event, City Council Speaker Julie Madden laid out a multi-pronged 2026 agenda focused on reducing public‑sector healthcare and insurance costs, curbing long emergency no‑bid contracts, proactively creating affordable housing on city sites (including public libraries), and easing burdens on small businesses.
Council Speaker Julie Madden used remarks at an Association for a Better New York (ABNY) event to present a broad affordability plan that she said will guide the City Council’s work into 2026.
Madden said rising public‑sector healthcare costs are squeezing the city budget and families. "Currently 10% of the New York City budget is spent on public sector healthcare. It's about $11,000,000,000 a year," she said, noting that figure was about $6,000,000,000 five years earlier and that the council has identified opportunities to save "upwards of $2,000,000,000 a year" by using the city’s purchasing power.
The speaker credited a council bill that created the city’s Office of Healthcare Accountability and said that work has led to a new city health plan that could save taxpayers "up to…
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