| THOMPSON REPORT EXPOSES INCREASING
HEALTH DISPARITIES BASED ON INCOME LEVELS
 |
| New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. releases a new report examining health disparities in hospitalization and mortality rates based on income in New York City at a news conference in Manhattan on September 27, 2007. Pictured, (l to r) are: Glenn von Nostitz, Director, Policy Management, Office of the Comptroller; Ronda Kotelchuck, Executive Director, Primary Care Development Corporation; and, Thompson.
Photo Credit: Marla S. Maritzer |
Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. released a report finding that from1990 to 2005, disparities in hospitalization and mortality rates based on income have widened among New York City neighborhoods for heart disease, cancer and, particularly, diabetes.
Thompson’s report, “Health and Wealth: Assessing and Addressing Health Disparities in New York City,” also noted that in the case of asthma, while hospitalizations have decreased due to better management of the disease, the prevalence of childhood asthma remains disturbingly high in many low income neighborhoods.
The Comptroller’s comprehensive analysis examined rates of various health condition hospitalizations and deaths by neighborhood since 1990, indicating that health disparities arise from a complex interaction of economic, social and environmental factors.
The Comptroller noted that anticipated hospital closures in New York City raise the prospect of more emergency room overcrowding and even fewer primary care facilities available to treat low income families.
Thompson called on City and State officials to increase reimbursement for primary and preventive care, more vigorously attack the known underlying causes of asthma, expand public education campaigns, and encourage the creation of drug and retail store health clinics in or accessible to low and moderate income neighborhoods across the city. These clinics would complement existing medical facilities, especially at night and on weekends, and provide additional cost-effective, convenient primary care for routine illnesses. The addition of such clinics, working in association with existing facilities such as clinics and hospitals, would in part help address the scarcity of primary and preventive health care in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
“Simply stated, providing primary and preventive care saves lives and money, and is key to reducing disparities,” Thompson said. “Research studies have firmly established a positive correlation between the availability and utilization or primary and preventive health care in a neighborhood and the health of a neighborhood’s residents.”
The Comptroller continued: “However, long waiting times at existing clinics, physicians’ offices, and emergency rooms are often obstacles to working people seeking treatment. In addition, freeing up emergency rooms by offering alternatives for people seeking routine, non-emergency care has long been a goal. While in no way supplanting primary care clinics or private doctors, retail clinics can provide a supplement to those services and help remove some obstacles to care.”
The full report can be viewed at www.comptroller.nyc.gov.
|
