Tannery Pond Center presents our Tannery Talks: Protecting Health Care for the North Country, an conversation with Dr. John Rugge, moderated by Arthur Webb
Sunday, November 16 | 2 PM
Suggested donation at the door: $10
With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act having been approved by Congress and signed into law by the President, health care services—starting with the Medicaid program—are facing new challenges all across the nation, and not least in the North Country of New York.
A newly formed Healthcare Coalition for the North Country, comprised of 250 volunteers, has organized to become informed and now reach out and communicate the nature and the impact of these challenges—communicate with our friends and neighbors, and also with our public leaders at the state, county, and town levels.
This upcoming interview at the Tannery Pond Center has been arranged to discuss what all of us as patients, our health care providers, and our local economy are now facing and how we all need to work together to protect both our personal lives and our shared community life from serious damage or even destruction.
This Tannery Talk is made possible, in part, by Warren County Occupancy Grant Program, regranted by the Town of Johnsburg and the Adirondack Foundation’s Generous Acts grant.
John Rugge
I spent my early years growing up in the Mohawk Valley but took a turn as a young teenager when I saw a poster at the Gore Mountain Ski Center that described a certain race, some kind of “Derby”, being planned for the spring, starting in North Creek.
That May, in 1959, my Dad and I stood on the bank of the Hudson River taking Super-8 movies to learn paddle strokes for canoeing whitewater. For me, this was the start of something like a life-long career--canoeing rivers all around North America.
There were, of course, interruptions along the way: four years at Williams College, for example.
Then came three years at Harvard Divinity School to prepare for teaching religion in college, but this plan was sidetracked by my giving another school a try—that being, Yale Medical School.
Next came medical residency at Albany Medical Center which was interrupted by a phone call from a book editor interested in publishing a canoe book that I had started with my paddling friend, Jim Davidson.
Taking a break from Albany, I rented a farmhouse in an appealing little hamlet by the name of Sodom to finish the book and then practice somewhere nearby for the remainder of the year.
Big surprise, that summer all three physicians in Chestertown closed their practices and moved away. As an even bigger surprise, the doctors in the surrounding towns were all looking to retire too.
Now taking care of patients in Chester but having nowhere else for them to go, I couldn’t leave. Continuing my medical practice, I also went to work to prevent this area becoming a medical vacuum which eventually led to my becoming the “founder” of Hudson Headwaters Health Network. When asked where I actually “found” this network of community health centers that now stretches from Saratoga County to the Canadian border, I have just one answer: “In the hearts and souls of so many people who volunteered to devote their experience, their energy, and their time to make sure health care would still be here.”
Next, at Tannery Pond on November 16, I will do my best to answer questions from another health care professional, Arthur Webb, about how this area of ours is facing the same need all over again. The big question for all of us now is how to save health care for the North Country.
Arthur Webb
Arthur Webb is a permanent community resident and has been a homeowner since 1971 in the Town of Johnsburg. He is fully engaged in our Johnsburg community, as Chair of the Johnsburg Emergency Squad (EMS); participates in the Town’s Seniors Committee, Tannery Pond Center, and other local volunteer efforts. He served for 18 years in state government as commissioner of four agencies.; was the President & CEO of nonprofit healthcare organizations in New York City; and for the last 15 years and continues operating a consulting practice in healthcare focusing innovative solutions to improving quality and access for people with complex needs.
Mr. Webb published Dangling on a String: The Future of Public Policy for the Field of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in New York State in 2022. This is a collection of articles, policy papers and commentaries that were written from 2011 to 2021. Mr. Webb also published Honorable Profession: My Years of Public Service in 2023 that covers his 18 years in public service in New York State government.