Health Insurance Enrollment Blitz Ordered By De Blasio

NEW YORK — New Yorkers could soon find information about health care at their local park or school. Every city agency that provides direct services must help people find and enroll in health insurance under an executive order Mayor Bill de Blasio signed Tuesday.

The order, effective immediately, directs the mayor's Public Engagement Unit to coordinate insurance outreach and enrollment efforts by city agencies. The move will help New Yorkers learn about and sign up for insurance at when they go to police precincts, public housing, job trainings or even to pay a parking ticket, according to city officials.

"I expect every single city agency, every agency that serves New Yorkers, to do their maximum to ensure that people are signed up for health insurance," the Democratic mayor said at a news conference. "This is everybody’s business."

The Public Engagement Unit will provide agencies with information, train staff and develop a system to make sure uninsured New Yorkers get help finding affordable insurance, the mayor's office said. The order also says the unit will develop a system for agencies to report on enrollment efforts if they don't already do so.

The order explicitly says the initiative will include information about MetroPlus, the city's public health insurance option. De Blasio pledged to promote that program as part of his effort to expand health care services for the city's roughly 600,000 uninsured people.

The mayor signed the directive ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline to enroll in a health plan through New York State of Health, the state's insurance exchange. The city has already worked to promote enrollment through its GetCoveredNYC campaign.

There are about 300,000 people in the city who are eligible for health coverage but not insured, de Blasio said. The city aims to get the first 30,000 of them signed up by July, he said.

While GetCoveredNYC does broad outreach at community events and in other settings, the executive order makes it a priority for city agencies to help enroll New Yorkers who interact with them, de Blasio said.

"The agencies really reach a lot of people, and different people a lot of times," he said. "And we need literally to grab every opportunity to get people signed up."

The order also comes ahead of this summer's launch of NYC Care, a new program that will offer a range of health services — including primary care and mental health care — to New Yorkers who are ineligible for insurance. The program is expected cost $100 million when it is fully built out.

City officials have emphasized the importance of connecting people with primary care doctors so they don't have to turn to emergency rooms for help.

"A primary care doctor engages with you in a dialogue not just that one day, but sometimes over years, sometimes over a lifetime. A primary care doctor listens to you, gets to understand you," said Dr. Herminia Palacio, the deputy mayor for health and human services, who practiced clinical medicine for nearly two decades.

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio holds up an executive order on Tuesday directing city agencies to help New Yorkers find and enroll in health insurance. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)