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The city so nice they named it twice recently started making moves to become much kinder to its residents. New York City has 8.6 million inhabitants, 600,000 of whom are uninsured. Propelled by a desire to make sure everyone can fulfill their right to lead a healthy life, officials have decided that reducing that number by a fraction isn’t enough; they want to bring the number of insured to an astounding zero.
On January 8, 2019, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would guarantee health care to every resident, no matter their financial or immigration status. The ultra inclusive program - named NYC Care - is an expansion of their pre-existing MetroPlus public insurance plan. Under these programs, people who didn’t previously have access to affordable healthcare will now be able to seek primary care options as well as visit mental health, OBGYN, geriatric, and other professionals.
“When this plan is fully implemented every New Yorker who needs a doctor will have an actual doctor with a name and a place, they’re going to have a card that will empower them to go to that doctor whenever they need,” de Blasio said. “A primary care doctor, an actual person that you can turn to that’s your doctor, and the specialty services that will make all the difference.”
While the program will cost around $100 million, many residents are using the emergency room as their only option to receive medical attention, and it ends up costing even more money. The new health care plan will ensure that everyone can get the medical attention they need. This summer, the plan will launch in the Bronx and make its way to the rest of the boroughs by 2021.
New York City’s bold new healthcare program will be the biggest and most comprehensive health coverage program in the country. “This has never been done in the country in a comprehensive way,” de Blasio told MSNBC. “Health care isn’t just a right in theory, it must be a right in practice. And we're doing that here in this city.”
Here’s to healthier and happier residents from 2019 onwards.
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