Release #225-00

 

Contact:

Sunny Mindel/Michael Anton 212/788-2958

MAYOR GIULIANI ANNOUNCES HEALTH*STAT INITIATIVE

Citywide Campaign to Enroll Uninsured New Yorkers in Health Care Programs

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today announced "Health*STAT," 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.

"Expanding access to health insurance is one of the most important ways the City can improve the lives of New Yorkers," Mayor Giuliani said. "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. 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."

In his State of the City address this past January, the Mayor 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. For example:

• The City Planning Commission has identified people eligible for coverage and produced detailed maps of all five boroughs identifying their location.
  
• The Mayor's Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has identified hundreds of locations throughout the City-including police precincts, fire houses, schools, hospitals, housing developments, and other City facilities-where people will be able to obtain information on health coverage and enroll in existing programs. OEM will also identify churches and other private community-based organizations which will assist the City in providing these services.

Based on the data collected and analyzed by City Planning, OEM, and MOHIA, the City has preliminarily been divided 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 and the Department of Correction's TEAMs process, to collect data from all participating City agencies and track progress in enrolling uninsured, eligible New Yorkers. Weekly meetings will assess the effectiveness of the overall effort and identify areas requiring greater focus and attention.

All other relevant City agencies have been directed to prepare detailed plans outlining the most effective ways they can contribute to the success of the overall objective. Initial City agency efforts will focus on the enrollment of uninsured children through the schools, summer school programs, the Housing Authority, the Summer Youth Employment Program, and youth programs run by the NYPD and other agencies.

Deputy Mayor Anthony P. Coles said, "The key to Health*STAT's success will be the work of each agency in developing plans to reach the uninsured, and then to engage in comprehensive follow-up to make sure that as many people as possible are provided coverage."

There are several programs into which Health*STAT will initially focus on enrolling people:

• Child Health Plus, a state program, serves children with family incomes of up to 250% of the Federal Poverty Line (FPL), or $35,400 per year for a family of three;
  
• Medicaid, a federal program, serves very low income children and adults; and
  
• Family Health Plus, a state program scheduled to begin in January of 2001, serves single adults with incomes of up to 100% of the FPL, or $8,400 per year, and families with incomes of up to 150% of the FPL, or $21,225 for a family of three.

Child Health Plus, Medicaid and Family Health Plus each cover regular medical check-ups, dental visits, eye exams and eyeglasses, mental health services, prescription drugs, hospital care, and other services.

Another key objective of Health*STAT is to increase private health care options for small businesses, primarily through:

• HealthPass, a health care purchasing alliance for small businesses that increases the number of private plans available for purchase by small businesses; and
• Healthy New York, a state program of subsidized health insurance for small businesses.

MOHIA Executive Director Anne Heller said, "While Health*STAT's initial focus will be on enrolling children and families in existing programs, HealthPass and Healthy New York will enable many more small businesses to purchase better and less expensive health insurance for their employees."

Mayor Giuliani also praised Governor Pataki and the state legislature for the efforts in developing the Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus programs.

As part of Health*STAT, MOHIA will also work with City agencies and others to develop new programs to cover uninsured people not currently eligible for existing programs.