Mayor de Blasio has boasted about the city’s “universal health care” system on the campaign trail — but a new report by his own administration shows the Big Apple’s public health system is unwell.
The number of people visiting city hospitals is down, membership in the public option MetroPlus is declining, and patient satisfaction is at the lowest point in five years — even though spending, staffing levels and overtime are all rising.
“With key health metrics continuing to decline, it’s clear that H+ H’s investments aren’t making the dent they need to as quickly as we would like, and Dr. Katz’s bold turnaround plans for the public system hopefully will begin showing real results soon,” said Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, chair of the Council’s Committee on the city’s Health + Hospitals agency. Dr. Mitchell Katz took over the H+H last year.
The Mayor’s Management Report, released earlier this week, found that 1,080,000 people visited the city’s 11 hospitals, known as NYC Health + Hospitals, in fiscal year 2019—compared to 1,112,000 the previous year.
MetroPlus, the city’s affordable health plan for people on Medicare and Medicaid, also lost members. Enrollment dropped by 3,000 New Yorkers to 519,000 in 2019, according to the report.
The declining numbers come as de Blasio has vowed to connect 300,000 uninsured New Yorkers with public doctors and made the city’s “universal quality healthcare” a centerpiece of his long shot White House bid.
“It matters that we nominate a candidate who saw the destruction wrought by a broken health care system and gave people universal health care,” de Blasio said at the first Democratic presidential primary debate in June.
“These things really matter. And these are the things that I’ve done in New York,” he claimed.
The mayor’s report also reveals why potential patients aren’t flocking to public hospitals. The “post-acute care patient satisfaction rate” slumped to 80.7% from 85.3% over the past year. It had been climbing from 81% in 2014.
While the average wait time for adults to see city docs dropped from 13 days to 12—youngsters had to wait nearly 1.5 days longer for care. The report blamed a new electronic medical records system on the delay.
City hospitals also received poor marks for women’s health. Fewer women received mammogram screenings and more expectant mothers stopped receiving prenatal care.
The downward trend is in stark contrast to the funds being pumped into public hospitals. HHC spent $354 million more last year compared to 2018. The $8.2 billion in expenditures was far greater than the $7.7 billion the city planned to spend. Personnel was also up to 37,711 from 36,571 and overtime climbed by $27 million.
A mayoral spokeswoman said, “Our public hospital system is in its best financial state in years , and uninsured rates are at record lows. The year-over-year indicators cherry-picked for inclusion here show fluctuations that do not represent the current state of public healthcare in our city.”
An HHC spokesman added that revenues are up $240 million compared to last year and applications for city-funded health care increased by 15%.