File #: Res 0717-2007    Version: * Name: Governor and the State Legislature to establish easier public health insurance enrollment and re-enrollment processes and implement an aggressive outreach program.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Health
On agenda: 2/28/2007
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the Governor and the State Legislature to establish easier public health insurance enrollment and re-enrollment processes and implement an aggressive outreach program, so that the 500,000 uninsured children, 900,000 Medicaid-eligible adults and the one-third of all people on Medicaid who are dropped from the rolls each year are enrolled by the end of 2007.
Sponsors: Helen D. Foster, Gale A. Brewer, Inez E. Dickens, Sara M. Gonzalez, Letitia James, Darlene Mealy, Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., James Sanders, Jr., Kendall Stewart, Melissa Mark-Viverito
Council Member Sponsors: 10

Res. No. 717

 

Resolution calling upon the Governor and the State Legislature to establish easier public health insurance enrollment and re-enrollment processes and implement an aggressive outreach program, so that the 500,000 uninsured children, 900,000 Medicaid-eligible adults and the one-third of all people on Medicaid who are dropped from the rolls each year are enrolled by the end of 2007.

 

By Council Members Foster, Brewer, Dickens, Gonzalez, James, Mealy, Recchia Jr., Sanders Jr., Stewart and Mark-Viverito

 

                     Whereas, The United Hospital Fund estimates that there are 1.5 million non-elderly uninsured in New York City and 2.8 million non-elderly uninsured in New York State; and

                     Whereas, According to the United Hospital Fund, 16 percent of the non-elderly uninsured in New York City and 17 percent of the non-elderly uninsured in New York State are children; and

                     Whereas, The United Hospital Fund also reports that one out of five adults in New York State is uninsured; and

Whereas, United Hospital Fund data also reveals that two-thirds of the non-elderly uninsured in New York City and nearly two-thirds of the non-elderly uninsured in New York State are from low-income families; and

Whereas, The United Hospital Fund estimates that 1.2 million residents of New York State, almost half of the State’s uninsured, are eligible for Medicaid, Family Health Plus or Child Health Plus, including three-quarters of all uninsured children and more than one-third of all uninsured adults; and

Whereas, The New York Times reported on January 4, 2007, that approximately one-third of all people receiving Medicaid in New York State fail to renew their enrollment, even though they are still eligible; and

                     Whereas, The Children’s Defense Fund - New York argues that despite attempts at simplification, enrollment and renewal procedures for public health insurance programs are complicated and overwhelming; and

                     Whereas, A lack of health care coverage negatively affects the current and long-term health of individuals; and 

Whereas, Families USA maintains that a person who lacks health care coverage is more likely to go without screening and preventive care, be sicker and die earlier than a person with health care coverage; and

                     Whereas, Families USA also indicates that an uninsured person tends to receive medical care that is more costly than that provided for an insured individual, and often delays or forgoes needed medical care; and

                     Whereas, The uninsured are a significant burden on the health care system in New York State and, according to The Urban Institute, their health care needs required the State to spend $7.2 billion in health care costs in 2005, at least $2.8 billion of which was uncompensated; and

Whereas, Governor Eliot Spitzer vowed in his State of the State address on January 3, 2007, to make health insurance available to all 500,000 uninsured children in New York State and to enroll all 900,000 uninsured adults eligible for Medicaid; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Governor and the State Legislature to establish easier public health insurance enrollment and re-enrollment processes and implement an aggressive outreach program, so that the 500,000 uninsured children, 900,000 Medicaid-eligible adults and the one-third of all people on Medicaid who are dropped from the rolls each year are enrolled by the end of 2007.

 

AS

LS # 2389

February 7, 2007