Expanding Health Care Coverage

By

The New York Academy of Medicine

Funding Area

Expanding Health Care Coverage

Date

June 20, 2012

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This New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) report, supported by NYHealth, examines strategic opportunities to build upon the public health provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to drive broader improvements in health outcomes in New York State.

With only 5% of national health expenditures estimated to go to prevention and public health initiatives, the United States has fallen behind other developed nations on key health indicators. Furthermore, there are major disparities in health care access in the United States–producing disparate outcomes, disproportionate disease burdens, and preventable deaths–across populations that reflect broader inequities. New provisions in the ACA offer both policy prescriptions and resources for redressing this imbalance.

The NYAM report identifies specific opportunities in the ACA to direct investment to the public health infrastructure, including the data collection, public health workforce, and local community health capacity that will bring about reforms. The report also examines how changes in New York’s health delivery system–specifically around Medicaid Health Homes and hospitals’ community benefit requirements–can be shaped in service of public health goals. It offers specific recommendations to use these opportunities to craft a health care system that maximizes population health for all New Yorkers.

In addition to the full report above, view a supplementary resource: “A Summary of Prevention-related Provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Their Implementation Status in New York State.”