Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of the largest plan in the nation to guarantee health care for every New Yorker. The plan will serve the 600,000 New Yorkers without insurance by strengthening NYC’s public health insurance option, MetroPlus, and guaranteeing anyone ineligible for insurance—including undocumented New Yorkers—has direct access to NYC Health + Hospitals’ physicians, pharmacies and mental health and substance abuse services through a new program called NYC Care.
All services will be affordable on a sliding scale. The programs will include customer-friendly call lines to help New Yorkers—regardless of their insurance—make appointments with general practitioners, cardiologists, pediatricians, gynecologists and a full spectrum of health care services.
NYC Care will launch in summer 2019 and will roll out geographically, starting in the Bronx. It will be fully available to all New Yorkers across the five boroughs in 2021. The program will cost at least $100 million annually at full scale. Additionally, Metro Plus will announce a series of enhancements throughout the year.