Building a Healthier New York for the 21st Century Expanding access to health insurance is one of the most important ways the City can improve the lives of New Yorkers. Approximately 1.5 million low-income New Yorkers lack health care coverage. Of those, at least 900,000 - of whom one-quarter are children, and two-thirds are working - are likely eligible for existing federal and state health care plans. Therefore, I have announced a new, comprehensive citywide initiative
to provide uninsured New Yorkers with health insurance. Health*STAT
will mobilize all City agencies to identify uninsured New Yorkers, and
assist them in enrolling in existing health care programs. The initial
focus of Health*STAT will be to enroll the city's uninsured children
in health insurance programs. In my State of the City address in January, I announced the creation
of the Mayor's Office of Health Insurance Access (MOHIA). In developing
Health*STAT, MOHIA has worked closely with a number of City agencies.
The City Planning Commission has produced detailed maps in all five
boroughs identifying neighborhoods with the most uninsured residents.
The Mayor's Office of Emergency
Management has identified hundreds of locations throughout the city
where people will be able to obtain information on health coverage and
enroll in existing programs. Based on this data, the city has been divided up into eight Health*STAT
regions, each of which will have a manager responsible for coordinating
outreach and enrollment efforts. The Mayor's
Office of Operations will set up a process, modeled after the NYPD's
"Compstat" system, to collect data from City agencies and
track progress. Weekly meetings will assess the effectiveness of the
overall effort and identify areas requiring greater focus and attention. Uninsured children will be enrolled through the schools, summer school
programs, the Housing Authority, the Summer Youth Employment Program,
and youth programs run by the NYPD and other agencies. The two programs into which Health*STAT will initially focus on enrolling
people are Medicaid and "Child Health Plus." A third program,
"Family Health Plus", is expected to start next January. Another
key objective of Health*STAT is to increase private health care options
for small businesses, primarily through "HealthPass" and "Healthy
New York." For the first time, the City is focusing all its available resources
on providing as many people as possible with health insurance. The potential
impact of Health*STAT is very significant. This is a big goal that has
eluded New York City and most of America in the past. If we can do this,
it becomes a model for the rest of the country. As part of our efforts to promote a healthier city, we introduced The
Drive Against Prostate Cancer at City Hall last week, providing free
prostate cancer screenings for New Yorkers. Launched by Thor Industries,
The Drive provides a customized mobile medical vehicle which is touring
North America to increase prostate cancer testing and awareness. Each year, close to 200,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate
cancer. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause - after lung cancer
- of cancer deaths in men. From my own experience, I can assure you
that early intervention is the key to fighting this deadly disease.
Statistics show that if the disease is detected early, and it is confined
to the prostate, the chances of survival are extraordinarily high. I encourage all men over 50 - or over, 40 if you are African-American
or have a family history of the disease - to get tested. If you do detect
prostate cancer at an early stage, then the chances of survival are
excellent, and the better your chance of dealing with it in the most
effective way possible. There's no reason not to get this test. It's
truly a life saver. For those who couldn't take advantage of The Drive during its New York
stop, the Daily News and some of the city's most prestigious hospitals
are sponsoring a free prostate cancer screening program for men over
age 40. The simple blood test can be performed in five minutes. All
you need to do is clip out an application form that will run every day
in the Daily News until June 24th, and bring it to any of more than
60 participating medical facilities citywide. New Yorkers should also be aware that at every Health
and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) facility in the city, you can get
a prostate screening for free as part of a routine physical or primary
care check-up. The test is free for those who can't afford to pay or
don't have health insurance or are ineligible for Medicaid. Our administration is doing everything it can to achieve our ultimate goal of providing all New Yorkers with the very best medical care in the world.
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