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Council Member Lynn Schulman opens hearing on Healthy NYC initiative and related legislation
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4 min
Council Member Lynn Schulman, chair of the NYC Council's Committee on Health, opens the hearing on the Healthy NYC initiative and introduces two related bills under consideration. She provides context on the initiative's goals, recent health trends in NYC, and the importance of addressing health disparities.
- Healthy NYC aims to increase NYC life expectancy to 83 years by 2030
- The hearing also considers Introduction 641 on nutrition standards for children's meals and Introduction 1047 on sleep apnea screening
- Schulman emphasizes the need for data collection, reporting, and partnerships to achieve Healthy NYC goals
Lynn Schulman
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Good morning, everyone.
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I'm council member Lynn Shulman, chair of the New York City's Council's Committee on Health.
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I wanna thank all of you for joining us at today's hearing on Healthy NYC, the population health agenda for New York City.
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We are also considering introduction number 641 by council member Kevin Riley in relation to nutrition standards and beverage options for children's meals served in food service establishments and introduction number 1047 by council member Shawna Breu in relation to establishing a sleep apnea screening pilot program and public education outreach campaign.
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Before we begin, I'd like to note that we've been joined by council members Ariola, Narcisse, Zhuang.
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Okay.
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In November of 2023, I joined the mayor and then DOHMH Commissioner Ashwin Vasan to announce Healthy NYC, a bold new initiative to increase New Yorkers' life expectancy to 83 years of age by 2030.
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My legislation enacted earlier this year, Local Law 46, codified Healthy NYC to ensure the campaign endured beyond any one administration.
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The law required DOHMH to develop a 5 year population health agenda to improve public health outcomes, address health disparities, and improve quality the quality and access to health care.
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The law also requires annual reports to the council on DOHMH's progress towards reaching the Healthy NYC goals.
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Powering Healthy NYC is a simple idea.
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The greatest city in the world should be the healthiest city in the world.
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According to the Healthy NYC agenda, life expectancy in New York City, the average number of years a person can expect to live from the time of their birth dropped dramatically from 82.6 years in 2019 to 78 years in 2020.
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This represented the biggest and fastest drop in lifespan in a century.
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While the 2024 Healthy NYC progress report shows an increase in life expectancy to 81.5 years in 2022 from 80.7 years in 2021, this increase predates the launch of Healthy NYC and still reflects a lower life expectancy than prior to the COVID 19 pandemic.
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The decrease in life expectancy was not experienced equally among all New Yorkers.
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Instead, the largest decreases were among black and Latino New Yorkers.
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For black New Yorkers, the COVID 19 pandemic worsened existing health inequities.
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The Healthy NYC agenda lays out the major drivers of this of decreased life expectancy in our city.
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Heart and diabetes related diseases, screenable cancers, COVID 19, substance abuse, homicide, suicide, and pregnancy associated deaths.
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Healthy NYC sets ambitious goals to reduce these drivers of decreased life expectancy, leveraging partnerships with health care providers, non profit organizations, faith based groups, businesses, academic organizations, and philanthropic organizations to make lasting improvements beyond 2030.
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As chair of the Committee on Health, I am committed to ensuring that DOHMH has the resources and tools it needs to meet or exceed the healthy NYC goals.
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It is imperative that the agency collects and reports detailed metrics and data that chart our progress towards those goals across demographics and that the city builds durable partnerships with accountability mechanisms in place to transform health outcomes.
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DOHMH is one of the largest and most respected public health agencies in the world And with support from this council and from organizations across the city, together I know we have the resources, the knowledge, and the networks to enhance the health and well-being of all New Yorkers.
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I have dedicated my personal and professional life to health care advocacy, and I've always believed that health care is a human right.
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Now more than ever, the city must recommit itself to an expansive and inclusive approach to public health and health care.
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Healthy NYC is an integral component of this vision, and I look forward to closely collaborating with the administration and HealthyNYC's partner organizations to achieve our goals.
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Thank you to acting commissioner and chief medical officer, doctor Michelle Morse.
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We love having you here, by the way.
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And the DOHMH team, who are here today to discuss this critical program.
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I want to conclude by thanking the committee staff for their work on this hearing.
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Committee counsel, Sara Suchar and Chris Pepe, policy analyst, Manor Butt, and the finance staff, Danielle Heifetz and Florentine Kabore, as well as my team, Jonathan Boucher, Kevin McAlear, and Avigail Zucker.
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I'll now turn it over to council member Abreu to make a statement about his legislation being considered today, introduction 1047.