New, Equitable NYC Health Care Needed After Coronavirus: Study

NEW YORK CITY — The coronavirus crisis showed equitable health care in New York City is a matter of life and death, a new study argues.

The study — “Toward a Resilient System of Health” — found Black and Hispanic city dwellers accounted for 62 percent of all COVID-19 fatalities. Together, the two groups are just 51 percent of the city’s population.

The outcomes showed the city’s primary focus should be to predict and proactively treat illness at a community level rather than provide reactive care when an individual gets sick, the study states.

“COVID-19 vividly demonstrated how social determinants of health— factors beyond direct medical services that influence overall health—are linked to disparate outcomes for Black and Hispanic populations,” the study states.

The Partnership for New York City released the study in collaboration with Deloitte. The group has garnered attention throughout the pandemic — first for warning a third of the city’s small businesses may go under, then by sending an open letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio signed by 167 business leaders.

The new study outlines a broad vision for the city’s health care system.

New York leaders should focus on not only rebuilding short-term trust in the health care system, but laying the groundwork for other city systems to support health and well-being, the study states.

It proposes the near-term support of science-based public health guidelines, a medium-term focus on community-based care and long-term reforms in Medicaid reimbursement, among many other proposals.

Read the full study here.