Spotlight: Health and Hospitals
Healthcare is one of the most critical—and most expensive—services that government provides.
In New York, a key driver of healthcare costs is Medicaid, the joint federal-state safety net program that will account for some $62 billion in in-state spending—at the local, state and federal level—in the next fiscal year.
The Cuomo administration has taken innovative steps to curtail those costs by finding efficiencies through its Medicaid Redesign Team, the driving force behind the state’s changing healthcare policies. Now, thanks to an $8 billion federal Medicaid waiver that allows New York to reinvest some of its cost savings, officials are working toward completely overhauling the state’s hospital and healthcare delivery system.
On the state level, lawmakers have also made top priorities of medical marijuana and an epidemic of heroin and opioid abuse, and both issues will continue to be watched closely as new laws passed last year go into effect.
And in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has inherited and largely embraced his predecessor’s public health campaigns against smoking and unhealthy food and drinks—while implementing new strategies to tackle them.
In this special section on health and hospitals, City & State delves into these changes that are transforming healthcare in New York and explores what’s next on the horizon.
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