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Bill de Blasio on Health CareNYC Mayor; Democratic Presidential Challenger |
Joe BIDEN: Harris' plan costs $3 trillion [annually]. Secondly, it will require middle-class taxes to go up, not down. Thirdly, it will eliminate employer-based insurance.
DE BLASIO: I don't know what the vice president and the senator are talking about. The folks I talk to say that their health insurance isn't working for them. There's tens of millions of Americans who don't even have health insurance, tens of millions more who have health insurance they can barely make work because of the co-pays, the deductibles, the premiums, the out-of-pocket expenses. There's this mythology that somehow all of these folks are in love with their insurance in America. What I hear is anger at private insurance companies that skim all the profits off the top and make it impossible for everyday people to get coverage like mental care, dental care, the things that would be full coverage for all Americans.
Sen. Michael Bennet: We need to be honest about what's in this plan. It bans employer based insurance.
De Blasio: If Democrats say we're done with private insurance, has only hurt the American people in so many ways, we're going to give them something that works for their family's full coverage that they can depend on. This should be the party that stands for universal health care and says we're not going to accept anything less. So many people don't have the health care they need. Tens of millions of people, including middle class people. Give them a chance to make that decision through an election.
O'ROURKE: No. I think the choice is fundamental to our ability to get everybody cared for. Our plan says that if you're insufficiently insured, we enroll you in Medicare. But if your health care plan works for you and your family, you're able to keep it.
DE BLASIO: Wait, Congressman O'Rourke; private insurance is not working for tens of millions of Americans when you talk about the co-pays, the deductibles, the premiums, the out of pocket expenses. It's not working. How can you defend a system that's not working?
O'ROURKE: That's right. So for those for whom it's not working, they can choose Medicare.
DE BLASIO: You've got to start by acknowledging the system is not working for people. You are defending private insurance.
As Chair of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, Ms. McCray brings together government, philanthropy and the private sector to work on some of the most pressing issues of our time, including mental health, youth employment and immigration.
Q: It was time to be very aggressive. We tried hard to use the normal public health outreach efforts and education efforts but there is a strong anti-vaxxer movement that really was affecting particularly one of our neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Williamsburg. And we couldn't let that go unanswered. So I ordered that we would mandate vaccinations. Now since that order almost 1,000 kids have gotten vaccinated. And we believe over the next few weeks we will see this crisis end. But we have had to close a few schools, in fact the religious schools that had too many kids coming to school unvaccinated. We had to give out violations to individuals with real fines attached. This is not something you ever want to do, but measles can be fatal. So it was time to be tough and time to show there would be consequences.
deserves the right to health care. From this point on every New Yorker gets a health care card. If they don't have insurance they get a simple health care card, they get a primary care doctor, they get a specialist when they need it, they actually get to go to the doctor not just the emergency room.
Now, we want people to get it right all over the country. So we need to say yes to Medicare For All in Washington. We need to say yes to single payer in Albany.
But until they say yes back, New York City will lead the way. We will literally guarantee health care for every single New Yorker.
We'll get you a doctor at one of our 70 public health centers. And if you're not eligible, like hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, including our undocumented neighbors, we'll take care of you too. It's the right thing to do.
Now, remember, our public hospitals already treat anyone who walks into an emergency room. But an emergency room is no replacement for comprehensive health care. So this year, Health + Hospitals will launch NYC Care, a sweeping package of health services guaranteed on an affordable sliding scale to anyone without insurance. And this is quality care: you'll be able to make an appointment, just like someone who has insurance, to see a primary care doctor, or a pediatrician--whatever you need, it will be there.
"Health care is a right, not a privilege reserved for those who can afford it," said Mayor de Blasio. "While the federal government works to gut health care for millions of Americans, New York City is leading the way by guaranteeing that every New Yorker has access to quality, comprehensive access to care, regardless of immigration status or their ability to pay."
However, since 67% of those uninsured are projected to be eligible for but not enrolled in ACA programs, a full-scale campaign mobilizing all city agencies and supporting community-based organizations to do outreach will not only increase coverage for New Yorkers, but increase federal dollars flowing to the city that can help free up resources for other health care initiatives for the remaining uninsured. The city's health department has created a detailed outline of ways to create a comprehensive "navigator" program that will supplement state efforts to enroll the uninsured.
Bill de Blasio will commit every financial and human resource needed--which will be repaid through the new federal dollars flowing to the city-- to enroll 600,000 more New Yorkers in ACA-covered health insurance programs by 2018.