Thread: Who will pay for health care for asylum seekers in NY? Local officials seek answers

Who will pay for health care for asylum seekers in NY? Local officials seek answers


David Robinson, New York State Team
Tue, August 15, 2023 at 3:05 AM EDT·5 min read



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Health care leaders are raising concerns about the rising cost of caring for hundreds of asylum seekers relocated from New York City to communities across New York.

In Westchester and Monroe counties, a mix of local health departments, nonprofits and federal health centers leaped into action to screen hundreds of migrants for infectious diseases and provide basic medical care in recent months.

At a minimum, those health care costs in Westchester and Monroe could top $600,000 and $120,000, respectively, in the first year, records show.

Jorge, 43, an asylum seeker from Venezuela, is one of the dozens of asylum seekers that were brought from New York City to the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh. Jorge, photographed outside the hotel May 31, 2023, said that he had to flee his home country after putting himself and his family in danger after speaking out about labor issues.

He left his wife and two daughters behind,

But the true price tag will assuredly be higher as authorities expect additional waves of asylum-seeking migrants to arrive in coming months, including some with more serious and costlier medical needs.

Yet despite mounting urgency, county officials and health providers lacked many details about how those health care services will be funded by New York City, and potentially state and federal programs.

Those talks are unfolding between local officials and New York City, which faced criticism amid claims its $432 million contract with for-profit company DocGo is delivering substandard care for migrants, as first reported by The New York Times.
“We have to figure out as a state how we’re going to do this the right way,” said Mary Zelazny, CEO of Finger Lakes Community Health, which is providing care to about 80 migrants in Monroe.

“These people are traumatized, and they need to have access to health care,” she added, “because otherwise they’re going to be going to the ER, and that costs everybody.”

Who is providing health care for asylum seekers in NY?

Jamesson Louis, a Haitian asylum seeker, facetimes with family inside the Plattsburgh, NY Moutain Mart.

Gov. Kathy Hocul last week launched a review of DocGo’s contract with New York City, raising questions at a media briefing about the quality of housing, food and health care delivered to migrants.

About 20 doctors, nurses and other workers with Weschester County Health Department joined local nonprofits and health centers in caring for nearly 400 migrants being housed in three hotels in Ardsley, Yonkers and White Plains, county officials said.

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During intake medical screenings, one migrant tested positive for tuberculosis and was promptly isolated in May, Westchester’s Deputy Director of Operations Emily Saltzman said. No further cases resulted from the incident, she added, noting the migrant received treatment at an area hospital and recovered.

No other serious illnesses or deaths have been reported among migrants in Westchester, Saltzman said, adding the issue of reimbursing the county for health service costs “has been raised at multiple levels” of government.

“At this time, we have provided the services as a matter of public health,” she said.
Westchester’s tuberculosis positive came before another case of the highly contagious disease was discovered recently in a migrant in Erie County.

On Saturday, Erie officials temporarily halted taking further asylum seekers, citing risks to local aid workers following allegations of two violent crimes involving migrants in Erie.

“We were assured of safety, security, and proper screening,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said in a statement. “Clearly that hasn’t been done.”

Families of asylum seekers are led into the Ramada hotel in Yonkers May 15, 2023. The families were being housed in New York City.

DocGo: We're screening asylum seekers for disease in NYC

In a statement to USA TODAY Network, DocGo asserted it conducts medical screenings of migrants before they are sent from New York City to other communities in the state.

At lease one nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant verbally screens for signs and symptoms of diseases, and performs a rapid COVID-19 test, the company noted, adding the workers also “visually” screen for rashes or lesions.

DocGo referred other questions about migrant health services and costs to New York City, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The company has also disputed claims of widespread problems with its care of migrants, while noting it is reviewing allegations of failures in the Albany area.

Monroe County Executive Adam Bello announces 77 asylum seekers from New York City have arrived and are staying at a downtown hotel. The housing, food and support services will be paid for by NYC.

How much does asylum seeker care cost NY and NYC?

New York City previously estimated providing basic medical care for migrants would cost about $1,500 per person per year, but the early projections now appear well below what it will cost to meet real-world health needs.

Mayor Eric Adams last week urged federal officials to provide further resources for the “humanitarian crisis.” The overall cost to house, feed, and care for tens of thousands of migrants, he added, will top $12 billion over three years — billions more than initially budgeted by New York City.

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Zelazny, whose upstate health centers typically treat about 28,000 patients per year, asserted uncertainties surrounding migrants’ care only deepens concerns about staffing and resource struggles plaguing American medicine.

“The health care system is limping along and across the country — but in New York state specifically — we’re not investing in primary care,” she said.

One key factor in the effort to care for asylum seekers is gaps in health coverage for undocumented New Yorkers, with a bill seeking to expand coverage to hundreds of thousands of adults stalling earlier this year.

Zelazny noted federal qualified health centers, including the eight she oversees across parts of upstate, never turn away patients. But it is a mission that will only grow increasingly difficult to fulfill without knowing who will pay for migrants’ care.


“This hurts the whole community because our resources get dwindled, and we don’t have the funding,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY asylum seeker health care costs rising. Who will pay?


https://www.yahoo.com/news/pay-healt...070506999.html

They pay human traffickers thousands of dollars. They can pay for their own healthcare back home!

Send them back.

Not ONE dime of our money should pay for any of them.

Fast track the UACs, pregnant ones, and sicks ones back home.