Helping the Uninsured

by Lea Tyrrell

We know thousands of Long Islanders don't have health insurance.  Now we have a better idea of just how large that number is.  A new report based on U.S. census numbers puts it at 400,000.  That's about 15% of the Island's population.  Specifically 173-thousand people in Nassau and  198-thousand in Suffolk.

But one of my guests on a recent Long Island Talks believes the numbers are higher than that because things have changed since the last census.  Gwen O'Shea, President and CEO of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, believes it's more like 20% of the Island's population going without health insurance.  She expects the situation to get worse with the current economic crisis, plus the numbers don't include Long Islanders who are UNDER-insured.  They have only the very basic coverage and pay a lot of their medical expenses out-of-pocket. 

As a New Yorker, there are programs that can help you get coverage if you're eligible.  There's Family  Health Plus for adults ages 19 to 64 who don't qualify for Medicaid.  Then there's Child Health Plus for kids, and there's Healthy NY which can help small business owners provide health coverage for their employees and their families, plus self-employed individuals and other uncovered workers.  You can go straight to those websites to get more information, or call the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island.

One caveat, though.  Gwen O'Shea tells me it can be difficult to get access to those programs.  Specifically, she says many families on Long Island have to wait months for the local departments of social services to determine if they're eligible for coverage even though federal law states local districts must make determinations for children in 30 days and adults in 45 days.  So this means if any of these programs can work for you, the sooner you start the process, the better.

Comments

[John]

It might be worth mentioning that some of us don't have insurance because we don't believe in running to the doctor for every little sniffle and ache.

Of course, I also equate "under-insured" with "over-priced." While I don't want to over-generalize, it seems like many doctors barely look at their patients and then prescribe a passel of drugs. For that, we're charged an arm and a leg, either directly or through taxes to support or approach universal health care.

There really is a huge middle ground between the "factory medicine" we're pushed through and the (pardon another generalization) hippie naturalists who have an irrational hatred of "chemicals." On that middle ground, insurance stops being an enormous luxury item and becomes a handy option.