Promoting Health Opportunity in New York

Health and Equality in New York

To protect and promote good health, equality, community, and voice are key values often overlooked in discussions of costs or specific policies. Community needs must be figured into health care planning, and people need a voice in decisions about health care and services. However, New York state has neglected these considerations in its health planning for years. And people’s health has suffered as a result. The racial, ethnic, or economic character of a community should not determine the quality of care that it receives.

But years of disinvestment have left some neighborhoods in New York, particularly low-income communities of color, dangerously underserved by health services. And the health of residents in these areas is demonstrably worse than those in better-served, more affluent parts of the city. Many advocates and health care providers were therefore concerned when the Governor formed a commission charged with downsizing hospitals throughout the state.

They were particularly troubled that the commission’s process left little room for community input, or addressing concerns about disparities and underserved areas. They mobilized to educate the public and policymakers about the mismatch between services and community needs, and to encourage community input. In doing so, they realized the need for an engaging way to tell the story of inequalities.

To make the case for health opportunity in New York, we culled research in public health and other fields to identify pressing inequalities. We also reviewed the state’s statutes and constitution and produced a report that showed how state and city policy, by insufficiently addressing disparities, had violated residents’ rights under a range of city, state, national, and international laws. To determine how best to communicate these findings, we conducted a statewide poll and crafted our communications and policy strategy based, in part, on one of its major findings: that 77% of New Yorkers believe that health care is a human right. We then provided advocates with traditional and web-based communications tools, message guidance, and media training and placement, resulting in an amplification of their voices in the din of politicians and health care business leaders.

By offering an integrated strategy, we provided advocates with complementary tools that are effective on their own, but stronger when used in concert. Advocates were then better able to make their case—for better community health planning and for increased community input—and to articulate a persuasive critique of the commission’s process. These groups continue to use our tools to promote equitable health planning for the state.