New York health insurance

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status report:
New York state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated New York state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did New York officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (8)

• Ann Marie Buerkle
• Chris Gibson
• Michael Grimm
• Richard Hanna
• Nan Hayworth
• Peter King
• Christopher Lee
• Tom Reed

Our
Pick

No (21)

• Gary Ackerman
• Timothy Bishop
• Yvette Clarke
• Joseph Crowley
• Eliot Engel
• Brian Higgins
• Maurice Hinchey
• Steve Israel

• Nita Lowey
• Carolyn Maloney
• Carolyn McCarthy
• Gregory Meeks
• Jerrold Nadler
• William Owens
• Charles Rangel
• José Serrano

• Louise Slaughter
• Paul Tonko
• Edolphus Towns
• Nydia Velazquez
• Anthony Weiner

how healthy is living in New York?

New York is ranked as the 24th healthiest state in the 2010 edition of America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation, one spot up from its 25th place position in 2009.

The good news:

• New York was praised for its availability of primary care physicians – 168.1 physicians per 100,000 of the population – and a relatively high level of public health care funding – $121 per individual.
• The state's report card also noted low rates of deaths due to cancer, occupational fatalities, and violent crime. Crime has significantly decreased over the past ten years, from 1,007 offenses to 385 offenses per every 100,000 members of the population.
• New York's infant mortality rate has fallen over the past five years from 6.3 to 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.

The bad news:

• New York has one of the highest rates of infectious disease in the nation – 32.4 cases per 100,000 individuals of the population – although that rate has decreased over the past ten years (from 70.9 cases per 100,000 population in 1990).
• The already rate of children in poverty has increased over the past year from 20.3 percent to 25 percent of the population under the age of 18.
• Other challenges include New York's low high school graduation rate and high rate of deaths due to cardiovascular disease.

New York's best and worst category rankings:

• Primary care physicians – 5th
• Occupational fatalities – 6th
• Premature death – 6th
• High school graduation (68.8 percent) – 41st
• Children in poverty (25 percent) – 43rd
• Infectious disease – 49th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on New York.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key New York health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts New York here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for New York, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does New York have a health insurance high risk pool?

New York does not have a state risk pool. The state has guaranteed-issue meaning all citizens will be accepted at the same premium regardless of their health. Thus New Yorkers are lucky to have access to health insurance that is much better than a risk pool (which almost always charges a higher-than-the-going-rate because it is made up of uninsurable people).

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, New York started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about New York's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in New York

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in New York and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in New York.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's New York health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for New York.

Health insurance plan report cards for New York

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for New York health insurance plan report cards.

New York government health insurance resources

New York State Government Health Insurance Information – a long list of links to information published by the State of New York regarding health insurance and health care topics.

New York State Child Health Plus – health insurance plan for kids. Depending on your family's income, your child may be eligible to join either Children's Medicaid or Child Health Plus .

Medicaid in New York State – works in partnership with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to assist in providing quality medical care for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and limited resources.

health care advocacy groups in New York

Community Service Society of New York – is committed to the goal of universal health coverage as the most fair and efficient method of achieving positive health outcomes for individuals and the greater community. In an effort to achieve this goal, CSS has launched a comprehensive campaign to provide access to affordable, quality health care coverage to the nearly 2.5 million New Yorkers who lack health insurance. Working with local partners, our aim is to build public will and advocate for significant government support to ensure that a plan for universal health coverage is in place by 2010.

Health Care for All New York – the statewide Consumer Voices for Coverage project seeking to achieve a commitment to provide affordable and comprehensive health coverage to all New Yorkers by 2010. The project’s strategy is to develop a set of standards that puts all universal health coverage proposals through rigorous scrutiny, providing an easily digestible comparison scorecard for both consumers and policymakers.

New York State Health Foundation – is an organization devoted to expanding health insurance coverage, increasing access to high-quality health care services, and improving public and community health. NYSHealth was established by the State of New York with charitable funds from the privatization of Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield.