Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Health care

Health care

  • PBMs Advocate for New York Consumers to Reduce Prescription Drug Costs

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    (photo: @albertarpap)


    As the debate over prescription drug costs continues, it’s important to understand the role pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) play in our health care system. Simply put, PBMs are the companies that are driving down prescription drug costs for New Yorkers and consumers nationwide. 

    PBMs are widely recognized for reducing prescription drug costs, but PBMs should also be recognized for

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  • Recognizing and Responding to Addiction: What to Know for National Recovery Month and Beyond

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    Ann-Marie K. Foster, the author, addresses program participants (photo: Phoenix Houses)


    It’s often said, but worth repeating during National Recovery Month: addiction does not discriminate. Drugs can hook anyone, anytime, anywhere—and it’s more of a problem now than it’s ever been. In New York, for instance, there were more opioid-related overdose deaths in 2017 than there were in the first six years of the 2000s combined.

    Today, the types of drugs available are also terrifyingly effective at creating addicts. Fentanyl and other synthetic

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  • Drug Overdose Deaths Drop for First Time in 8 Years, City Reports

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    (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    The New York City Health Department announced on Monday that the city’s efforts to curb the ongoing opioid crisis are showing progress, with 38 fewer drug overdose deaths in 2018 compared to the previous year. It is the first year over year drop in eight years, the city said.

    There were 1,444 drug overdose deaths last year, down 3% from 1,482 in 2017, according to ...

  • Eric Adams Plans to Put Public Health on the Menu in the Next Race for Mayor

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    Eric Adams with healthy food people (photo: @BPEricAdams)


    Eric Adams, Brooklyn’s borough president since 2014, can always count on one place for good reviews: vegan magazines and websites.

    Forks Over Knives, an organization dedicated to plant-based diets, collaborated with Adams for a 2018 mini-documentary about his lifestyle. ...

  • As Cuomo and Heastie Trade Comments on Anti-Poverty Efforts, a Closer Look at What They've Done

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    Speaker Heastie & Governor Cuomo (photo: the governor's office)


    Despite previously lauding the 2019 state legislative session as the “most productive session in modern political history,” Governor Andrew Cuomo went on to call the session “not progressive enough,” citing a need “to do more on poverty.”

    At his celebratory, mostly upbeat end-of-session press conference on June 21, Cuomo was asked about what did not get done, and cited three issues he said he would work on next year: legalizing adult-use marijuana and paid

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  • Ending Health Disparities That Disproportionately Impact New Yorkers of Color

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    Council Member Carlina Rivera, left, one of the co-authors (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    New York City is one of the largest, most diverse, and advanced cities in the country – in fact, New Yorkers are living one-and-a-half years longer than a decade ago and nearly nine years longer than 25 years ago. Yet behind that positive sheen lies a shameful truth – our city persistently falls short in health outcomes for people of color.

    As a New York City lawmaker chairing the committee that oversees our city’s largest public health system and as the

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  • New York City Must Fully Restore Article 6 Public Health Budget Cuts

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    (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    As health care providers and public health advocates, we believe that all New Yorkers deserve access to high-quality, comprehensive, compassionate health care. We believe that health care is a human right—not a luxury for the privileged. 

    And yet, New York State has cut vital public health programs for our city—and only our city. Known as Article 6, these state funds help support critical services provided by local health departments, including immunizations; tuberculosis outreach, education and testing; and sexual

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  • At 94%, New York Health Insurance Coverage Best of Four Most Populous States

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    (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)


    New York State had achieved the highest percentage of residents with health insurance coverage of the four most populous states in the country by 2017, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, one of the nation's leading health research organizations.

    Ninety-four percent of New York's residents had health insurance coverage that

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  • What's The [Data] Point? 1,112,975, with Dr. Mitchell Katz, President of NYC Health + Hospitals

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 71 -- 1,112,975, with Dr. Mitchell Katz, president of NYC Health + Hospitals [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

    artworks 000515225592 2py301 t500x500Dr. Mitchell Katz is in charge of the city's public hospital system, which includes 11 hospitals and dozens of other facilities

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  • Crafting a State Budget to Enhance Nurse-Family Partnership and Support Vulnerable New York Families

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    (photo: John McCarten/NY City Council)


    We live in a state with enormous resources, and a $175 billion annual budget—yet many New Yorkers still lack access to adequate maternal care. New York's maternal mortality rate is higher than the national average, and even worse in communities of color. Black women are over three times more likely to die from complications during childbirth than their white

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  • Coverage Denied No Longer: Expanding Eating Disorder Treatment in New York

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    Assemblymember Nily Rozic, the author


    “An eating disorder? I wish I had one of those — I could stand to lose a few pounds.”

    Every year, clients, advocates, and professionals visit the New York State Capitol to meet with legislators. When discussing their eating disorder experiences and pushing for legislation to ensure proper insurance coverage, too often they are met with that response and others like it.

    These kinds of insensitive quips reveal how little many people know about the danger and severity of eating disorders.

    No one intentionally

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  • Creating a Single-Payer Health Care System That Works for All New Yorkers

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    (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    In November, New Yorkers voted for a united government in Albany with a resounding directive: fix our broken healthcare system. Those election results are directly linked to the financial strain New Yorkers are facing as they struggle to choose between paying for their medication, premiums, long-term care, and basic needs, such as food or housing.

    The high costs of healthcare in our state have devastated hundreds of thousands of New York families by bankrupting those who are

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  • A Closer Look at ‘Vital Brooklyn,’ Cuomo’s Plan for ‘One of the Greatest Areas of Need in the Entire State’

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    Cuomo & Vital Brooklyn (photo: Mike Groll/Governor's Office)


    In March of 2017, Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled what he described as a groundbreaking initiative to “bring health and wellness to one of the most disadvantaged parts of the state.” That place was Central Brooklyn, where roubling health indicators of all types plague residents, from diabetes rates to poverty levels to inadequate

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  • Max & Murphy Podcast: Will Single-Payer Health Care Come to New York?

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    Ben Max, left, of Gotham Gazette, and Jarrett Murphy, right, of City Limits


    December 12, 2018 - Max & Murphy Podcast: Will Single-Payer Health Care Come to New York?

    wbai dec12 400One of the most hotly-debated issues in state government is whether New York should or will move ahead with the New York Health Act, which would institute single-payer health care. State Senator Gustavo Rivera, a Bronx

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  • With Full Democratic Control, Sponsors of New York Single-Payer Health Care Hopeful About 2019

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    Gov. Cuomo (photo: Kevin Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    This is part of AGENDA 2019, a joint Gotham Gazette-City Limits project
    Find the rest of the series here

    Though Governor Andrew Cuomo has not expressed support for instituting a single-payer health care system in New York, his fellow Democrats campaigned on the issue as they flipped control of the state Senate, landing all of state government into Democratic hands and providing a significant boost of optimism

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  • Democrats in Swing Districts Run On, Not From, Single-Payer Health Care

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    Gov. Cuomo & Long Island Democratic Senate candidates (photo: @andrewcuomo)


    Since the Affordable Care Act has failed to tame the beast that is America’s private health insurance system, and a new presidential administration is actively hostile to even that modest attempt at near-universal coverage, activists and many Democrats in New York have recently come to embrace a way forward. Single-payer, state-government-administered health care coverage has become something of a rallying cry for progressive activists in New York even as Governor Andrew Cuomo has

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  • State of Latino Health: Dismal, and Invisible

    Gotham Health Center

    (photo via NYC Mayor's Office)


    Latinos make up nearly a third of New York City’s eight million residents. But even though we are a large part of New York’s present and a rising population that’s crucial to the city’s future, we are completely invisible.

    We are invisible in large part because we are different. And because of those joined factors, our health care is in a state of crisis. Compared to our fellow New York neighbors, we lack access to quality, culturally competent care, and we face a shortage of high-quality family care options. In fact,

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  • With Fake Clinics Proliferating, New Yorkers Should Know Their Reproductive Health Care Rights

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    Letitia James and Andrea Miller, the authors


    When visiting a health care provider, most patients trust that they’ll get a reasonably high standard of medical care and assume that their medical providers will keep their information confidential, and are not actively trying to deceive them. But around the country, 2,700 fake women’s health centers – which sometimes call themselves “crisis pregnancy centers” – are lying to women and giving false information in order to prevent women from having abortions. One hundred of them are here in New York

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  • As Broader Debate Intensifies, New York Nonprofits Consider Throwing Weight Behind Single-Payer

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    Assemblymember Gottfried (photo: Dickgottfried.org)


    Wendy Stark is ready to press the reset button on health care. The executive director of Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, based in Lower Manhattan, Stark is hopeful that an overhaul may be on the horizon in New York through controversial legislation gaining increasing attention as this fall’s elections determine the upcoming balance of power in state government, from the governor’s office through the state Legislature.

    The New York Health Act -- which has increasingly strong chances of passing the

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  • Extending the Human Right of Health Care to All New Yorkers

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    Speaker Johnson, the author, visits a health care facility (photo via John McCarten)


    Health care for all is a human right. This means no one should be denied care based on their ability to pay.

    The World Health Organization recognized this fundamental truth 70 years ago, most countries around the world have been putting it into action for decades now, and doctors and nurses live it out professionally every day.

    Truly achieving this moral imperative means we need a universal health care system supported by taxes and administered

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  • 28 Years Later, ADA Non-Compliance Leaves Deaf Patients At Risk

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    (photo via UCONN)


    Imagine being in so much pain that you call 911. Imagine being transported a great distance by an ambulance, all the while in excruciating pain and scared about what might be going on inside your body. Imagine that when you arrive in the hospital, multiple people poke and prod you without telling you what they are doing and without your being able to tell them what you need.

    All too frequently, this is the experience of people who are deaf within the United States medical system, because of a complete disregard for the regulations and

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  • To Help New Yorkers Quit Opioids, Expand Access to Medical Marijuana Now

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    Gov. Cuomo at a med mar announcement (photo via the Governor's Office)


    As a 67-year-old cancer survivor who suffers from chronic pain as a result of cancer treatments, medical marijuana has allowed me to resume a more normal life free of addictive opioid medications. I hope that lawmakers will now consider expanding the state’s medical marijuana program so that more New Yorkers will have the same access to these important treatments as an alternative to the powerful prescription painkillers that sparked the opioid crisis in our

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  • Expanding Health Insurance Enrollment Will Help Heal New Yorkers and Our Public Hospitals

    Carlina Rivera City Council

    Council Member Rivera, one of the authors (photo: John McCarten/City Council)


    Even in an era of relentless attack on health care by the Trump administration and its allies in Congress, New York City is continuing to reap enormous benefits from the Affordable Care Act. This year alone another 80,000 city residents enrolled in health coverage through our state’s Obamacare exchange.

    But a huge number are still being left behind: an estimated 962,000 adults in the five boroughs remain uninsured. These New Yorkers -- many of whom are

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  • What's The [Data] Point? 176,000, with Patrick Orecki

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    What's The [Data] Point? Episode 40 -- 176,000, with Patrick Orecki [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]

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    176,000

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  • Expanding Immigrant Access to Health Care in New York

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    (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)


    In January of 2017, after living in this country for 17 years, I was able to access health insurance for the first time in my life. I became eligible as a new graduate studentl at NYU, which had a Student Health Insurance Plan—and, because in New York, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients were eligible for health insurance.

    Now, when I am ill or in need of a checkup, uncertainty and stress are no longer part of the equation. When I feel sick, I no longer need to try to force

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