USA TODAY International Edition
NYC health plan draws cheers, boos
City: It will help 600,000 uninsured residents
The comprehensive health care plan unveiled by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio this week drew applause from his supporters but skepticism from those who question its value and cost.
De Blasio, a Democrat, said NYC Care will provide primary and specialty care from pediatric to geriatric to 600,000 uninsured New Yorkers. De Blasio estimated the annual cost at $100 million.
“This is the city paying for direct comprehensive care (not just ERs) for people who can’t afford it, or can’t get comprehensive Medicaid — including 300,000 undocumented New Yorkers,” Eric Phillips, spokesman for the mayor, boasted on Twitter.
Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican representing parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, criticized the plan as an example of de Blasio using city coffers “like his personal ATM.”
Seth Barron, project director of the NYC Initiative at the Manhattan Institute think tank, noted the city’s uninsured can receive treatment at city hospitals. The city pays more than $8 billion to treat 1.1 million people, he wrote.
Barron said the mayor is simply trying to shift patients away from the emergency room and into clinics. He said dividing $100 million by 600,000 people comes to about $170 per person, the equivalent of one doctor visit.
“Clearly, the money ... is intended for outreach, to convince people to go to the city’s already-burdened public clinics instead of waiting until they get sick enough to need an emergency room,” he wrote. “That’s fine, as far as it goes, but as a transformative, revolutionary program, it resembles telling people to call the Housing Authority if they need an apartment and then pretending that the housing crisis has been solved.”
The plan has plenty of support. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said it will help his agency “give all New Yorkers the quality care they deserve.”