Health

New York City health insurance costs have recently risen 13 percent annually, with average monthly family health insurance premiums rising from $3,866 last April to $4,354 this April. For perspective, monthly premiums now exceed the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment in a building in the Financial District. As a result, healthier and younger New Yorkers drop coverage and leave insurers with an even sicker and costlier client pool. Should an uninsured person get injured and be unable to pay their medical bill, taxpayers must cover the expense. While the Federal government works its way towards universal health care, the City government should also investigate opening its health insurance plans to small businesses, so that (a) the businesses can benefit from increased bargaining power and (b) City benefits from lower rates coming from a larger and healthier risk pool.

In 1999 the New York Cancer Project -- involving 25 medical schools, academic health centers, and major medical research institutions in New York -- began a 20 year study on New Yorkers to better understand genetic and environmental factors that increase cancer risk. Let’s launch similar initiatives to better understand asthma, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and obesity, using funding from the federal government to build biomedical research capacity, expand local skilled employment, and learn valuable information on diseases that affect numerous New Yorkers.

On 9/11 New York City did not use the emergency broadcast system, but many New Yorkers learned about the crisis and what they should do over the Internet. The New York City Office of Emergency Management should work with local Internet Service Providers to provide an initial landing page like the one you see at a hotel or airport that would appear once in the event of an emergency with an advisory, instructions and links for additional details.