Q&A
Collaboration with H+H and improving access to healthcare
0:31:26
·
3 min
Council Member Schulman inquires about DOHMH's collaboration with Health + Hospitals (H+H) on health initiatives. Dr. Morse elaborates on their partnership efforts to improve healthcare access for New Yorkers.
- Joint programs for health insurance enrollment to make preventative care and screenings more accessible
- Collaboration on NYC Cares, a healthcare access program for those ineligible for other insurance forms
- Partnership on the Groceries to Go program to address food insecurity
- Discussion of potential collaboration with pharmaceutical companies for innovative treatments
Michelle Morse
0:31:26
Well, council, Chair Shalam, we would, number 1, love to continue the conversation about what we can do, to better address diabetes offline, and we will look into this study.
0:31:37
I'll also say that in addition to, that study, which I'm sure will be very informative, we also know that things like guaranteed basic income for New Yorkers who are experience experiencing diabetes and complications, as well as other innovative approaches to address material needs, access to healthy and nutritious foods, all of those kinds of things, would make a big difference.
0:31:59
So we look forward to that conversation.
Lynn Schulman
0:32:01
And I also think that if we can make it easier for people to, to take care of themselves, I think that would be helpful too, which feeds into a lot of what you discussed.
0:32:13
What is how are you working with H and H on all of these things?
Michelle Morse
0:32:18
Thank you for that question.
0:32:19
And we completely agree with you that that part of the goal in Healthy NYC and our focus on chronic diseases is to make the healthiest choices the default and easy, and accessible choice for New Yorkers.
0:32:33
One of the really important ways that we do that in the New York City Health Department and that is directly in partnership with Health and Hospitals is we do, have very extensive programs helping to enroll New Yorkers in health insurance.
0:32:46
And part of the reason that that is important is because having all of your preventative care, your screenings for cancer and otherwise, all of those kinds of things are even more, accessible and and easier to access with health insurance.
0:33:00
So we do continue to partner with lots of stakeholders across the city for enrollment, for all New Yorkers who are eligible in health insurance.
0:33:08
And, we also work with, health and hospitals on NYC Cares, which is their, health care access program for, people who don't qualify for other health insurance forms.
0:33:19
We specifically also work with them on a program called Groceries to Go, which really also tries to ensure that New Yorkers who are food insecure or nutrition insecure have an easier way to access the food and and healthy food as well that they need.
Lynn Schulman
0:33:35
I believe that's fully funded now, as a matter of fact.
Michelle Morse
0:33:38
For this year, it is.
Lynn Schulman
0:33:39
For this year.
0:33:40
Yes.
0:33:41
So the other thing that I just also wanna mention is I'd like to see at some point a collaboration of H and H, DOHMH and maybe some of the pharmaceutical companies because they have a lot of things in the in the works in terms of, groundbreaking treatment for so as an example, I I have high blood pressure and I don't do well on the medications, but there's a there's a, a drug in stage 2 testing that will it's an injection that you would get once every 6 months and it's had good results so far.
0:34:19
I mean, it's another 2 or 3 years before it's on the market.
0:34:22
But if if there's a way for us to get, folks into some of those maybe clinical trials or see if there's a way once something is out on the market and FDA approved that we have access to it.
0:34:35
So I just wanna make that suggestion because that's much better than taking a a pill that has side effects and everything else.
Michelle Morse
0:34:42
We, are happy to work with health and hospitals on access to, drugs that address hypertension.
0:34:48
We also know that the the prevalence of hypertension for adult New Yorkers is upwards of 30 to 40%, depending on the population you look at.
0:34:57
And so we know that high blood pressure is a major issue we need to continue to address.
0:35:01
It's part of Healthy NYC, and we have a program called Take the Pressure Off that's really geared towards specifically doing that, increasing access to blood pressure cuffs, to treatment, and also, I would also mention, of course, the health department's track record in salt labels, and labeling food that has a high content of salt, which we know also is a contributor to lots of chronic diseases including hypertension.
