Health Insurance Project

Public and private insurance play central roles in the financing of health care. The private health insurance market is largely driven by employer-sponsored insurance, which offers health insurance to workers and their families. Low-income families and the disabled primarily receive coverage through the Medicaid program, which is jointly funded by the federal government, the state, and counties. The vast majority of the elderly population (age 65 and older) receive health insurance through the federal Medicare insurance program.

Approximately 10 million New Yorkers—60.7 percent of the nonelderly population—get health insurance through their employers, about half through insurance policies and the remainder though various self-insurance arrangements. Over 5 million New Yorkers are covered by Medicaid, including 2.8 million in managed care plans. Rising insurance costs and persistent high unemployment continue to erode private health insurance coverage: in 2011 roughly 15.1 percent of Americans were uninsured, including an estimated 2.2 million New Yorkers (11.4 percent).   

Many of the reforms established by the Affordable Care Act were designed to expand health insurance coverage and reduce overall health care costs. Key provisions—including enhanced consumer insurance protections, expanded public program eligibility, and the availability of federal tax credits to purchase insurance—will extend insurance coverage in New York to approximately one million additional covered lives when the law is fully implemented, according to one State study.