New York's #1 Health Problem: 2.6 Million Uninsured
Assembly hearing in Rochester on Thursday, April 19

2.6 million New Yorkers still have no health coverage. Private sector employees continue to lose health coverage at work. New York would have hundreds of thousands more uninsured if it were not for growing enrollment in publicly-funded health programs. Governor Eliot Spitzer has demonstrated that health coverage for the uninsured is one of his top priorities.

The huge number of uninsured is New York's #1 health problem. The Assembly Committees on Health, Insurance, and Labor will hold the third and final public hearing on expanding health coverage on Thursday April 19 in Rochester.

In Albany, there are several approaches on the table including: creating a universal plan covering everyone, with broad-based public funding, similar to Medicare or Child Health Plus; allowing employers to buy into public health insurance programs for their employees; the expansion of Healthy New York; and, most recently, dramatic expansions to Child Health Plus designed to guarantee that every child has health insurance.

WHEN: Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 10 a.m.

WHERE:
City Council Chamber, Rochester City Hall; 30 Church St.; Rochester, NY

WHO:
Representatives from the New York Academy of Family Physicians, the Finger Lake Health Systems Agency, the American Cancer Society, the National Multiple Sclerosis Center - Upstate New York Chapter will provide testimony on how to address the problem of the uninsured. Advocates, individuals, insurers, and health care professionals will also testify.

The committees held their first hearing in this series in Albany on December 8, 2006. A second hearing was held in New York City on Friday, March 9, 2007.

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