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Three million New Yorkers do not have insurance coverage. One point seven billion of those uninsured people live in New York City. It's a problem that is growing to epidemic proportions with more and more of New York City's poor becoming so ill, they must turn to emergency rooms for help, or never get any help at all. And there's no end in sight.

New York City's uninsured population grows by leaps and bounds every year for many different reasons. Many people just can't afford to have health care because it is too expensive. The plans offered at work come with a huge price tag of over $500 a month for family health insurance plans. People who make just enough to survive, can't afford the plans and don't get coverage due to the high cost.

Many New York City employers can't afford to cover insurance for their employees due to the ever increasing costs of health coverage and drop their existing plans or don't get any insurance for their employees.

While many people still are working for a small amount of money or have no jobs at all, and can't afford the high costs of health insurance.

What does nearly 25 percent of New York City's population do for health coverage? New York City' working poor, immigrants, and unemployed live without health coverage and walk into emergency rooms when they are so sick, they can't function anymore. They have literally waited so long that their health care costs skyrocket. By having managed health care, the costs would have actually gone down because they could have taken care of the problem before it reached the critical stage. They have no regular source of health-care.

Other New York City dwellers go to government- subsidized clinics for their health care. This too may be a losing situation because they have no regular medical care, and are only seen by a doctor when they have waited too long. In other words they may be only going for emergency situations. Problems that could have been taken care of in their early stages or prevented from happening will only get worse without managed health care.

By seeing a doctor every year for a yearly checkup, future problems can be averted. Babies that were only seen by a doctor once may become seriously ill and end up in New York City's emergency rooms, when a simple life saving inoculation would have done the trick.

When emergency room care becomes a week long stay for an illness easily swayed by a quick shot, this only adds to the huge overall medical costs that burden New York City. The shot

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