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As a large and diverse city, both in terms of its ethnic and social demographics, New York has a sizeable number of residents who would be uninsured in respect of their medical and health requirements. Furthermore, due to the consistently increasing cost of the insurance premiums that are required to cover these needs, the uninsured numbers are always in a state of flux, increasing by the rate at which people are unable to pay for the renewal of cover. This situation is further exacerbated by the increase in the uninsured segment that naturally occurs regularly through births and new city arrivals.

Partially as a result of the continually changing uninsured population, but equally caused by the complexities attached to collecting fiscal data from the multiple health and care organisations who care for the uninsured, it is as difficult to produce a precise cost of care for the uninsured as it is to calculate the number of citizens who fall into this category.

Several researchers, observers and other interest parties have attempted to provide realistic estimates for the cost of the uninsured in New York City, but these can only be estimates. For example, in 2006 a group of authors (1) produced a report for the Urban Institute that endeavoured to evaluate total uninsured cost, both gross and net. Even in this case they found the need to work with estimated as well as factual data. The estimated data came from surveys conducted. In total the report indicates that the current figure is between $7 and $12 billion dollars, dependent upon whether that measurement refers to the basic level of care or includes the additional care the uninsured would be provided for it they had insurance.

A report for the New York Public Research Group blames part of the cost of the uninsured on the exorbitant prices that these people have to pay for prescription drugs. In the drugs that this report studied, in some cases the drugs in New York City were costing the uninsured, or rather those who paid for them, up to twice as much as the others were paying. When it is considered that in the worse case scenario that difference can be as much as $73.40 and even at the lower end of the scale the differential is $17.98, it is not surprising that the cost of the uninsured in New York City is as high as the estimate suggests. Similarly, with the variances that this report revealed, it is also easy to understand why definitive figures for that care cannot be quantified.

One of the elements of uninsured

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