Among the findings: Nassau and Suffolk residents view drugs, alcohol abuse and cancer as the top health concerns in their communities, and they worry most about heart disease and strokes in their own lives.
Janine Logan, senior director at Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council, sought a survey designed to understand what are the biggest barriers to obtaining medical treatment for Suffolk and Nassau residents. Photo Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
When Henry Molina searched for a doctor or dentist to treat a 15-year-old daughter suffering from severe tooth pain several weeks ago, the Huntington man kept getting the same response.
“They’d say they don’t accept my insurance,” he said.
Molina, 45, is not alone. Suffolk County residents said not knowing how to find doctors and lack of availability of doctors were the two biggest barriers their communities face in obtaining health care.
The findings are part of a recently released survey of nearly 2,500 Long Islanders that is used by health departments in Suffolk and Nassau counties, and by hospitals, to help guide health care priorities.
The survey found that Long Islanders view drugs, alcohol abuse and cancer as the top health concerns in their communities, and they worry most about heart disease and strokes in their own lives, with obesity, cancer, diabetes and women’s health and wellness other top personal concerns.
Access to doctors was a much greater concern in Suffolk than Nassau, the survey found.
That jibes with the results of a study released last month that found a dearth of physicians in Suffolk: only one doctor for every 1,360 residents, versus one per 700 residents in Nassau. That national study was conducted by the Princeton, New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Health Population Institute.
Molina said that, after 15 futile phone calls to health and dental providers, he ended up driving his daughter to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow to get care.
Joseph Dickson, 33, of Huntington Station, said he’s never had a problem finding a doctor. But, after taking his sick 6-year-old son to an urgent care center Thursday, he said many people in the area — which has a poverty rate more than double the county’s as a whole — don’t have cars and may live far from a health care provider. The survey found transportation is a top health need in Suffolk.
Nassau residents listed “no insurance” and “unable to pay copays/deductibles” as their top two community health concerns.
“That is a huge issue in the community,” said Pearl Jacobs, a longtime activist in Uniondale, where the median income is far below the county’s and the percentage of people without health insurance is three times higher.
The Affordable Care Act helped many residents obtain health insurance, “but here in the Uniondale community you have many people who are undocumented and don’t qualify for the Affordable Care Act” or Medicaid, Jacobs said.
Many people who do have health coverage face steep copays for doctor visits and prescription drugs, she said.
Residents of both counties put “healthier food choices” in the top five of what is needed to improve health in their communities.
In Wyandanch, there is only one supermarket with a wide selection of fresh produce, resident Pamela Usher said. Residents need greater access to nutritious foods, said Usher, who when she was school lunch director for the Wyandanch Union Free School District in 2014 instituted “meatless Mondays.”
In Suffolk, “recreational facilities” was listed as the top health need.
As Norma Zegarra, 45, of South Huntington, watched her sons, ages 8 and 10, play on the swings at Manor Field Park in Huntington Station, she said there are good parks in the area but few indoor recreation options.
“In the winter, it’s hard,” she said in Spanish.
Zegarra’s sons play in a private winter basketball league, but “not everyone has the ability to pay,” she said.
The Long Island Health Collaborative — which includes county health departments, hospitals and community groups — has conducted the state-funded health survey since 2013. It is distributed online and at places like health fairs and other public events, insurance enrollment sites, libraries and clinics, said Janine Logan, director of the collaborative, which is overseen by the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council. There is an overrepresentation of older and low-income people in the survey, but that lines up with a key priority of reducing income-based disparities in health care, she said.
Collaborative members such as South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside use the survey, as well as comments gathered from focus groups and community leaders, to help put together state-mandated community service plans.
The second South Nassau Communities health fair on the Long Beach boardwalk in June will be shaped in part by community input such as the survey, said Joanne Newcombe, vice president for community health development at the hospital. Screenings for some types of cancer, blood pressure tests and body mass index calculations, which measure body fat, are among services to be offered, tracking with commonly selected topics in the survey, she said.
WHAT THE SURVEY SAYS
Among the highlights of a 2018 health survey of Long Islanders:
- Drugs and alcohol abuse was the leading health concern in respondents’ communities in Suffolk, and the second-biggest concern in Nassau. Cancer was the top concern in Nassau, and the second-biggest concern in Suffolk.
- Heart disease and stroke were the top health concerns “for yourself” in both counties. Obesity and weight-loss issues were second in Suffolk and fourth in Nassau. Cancer was second in Nassau and third in Suffolk.
- Not knowing how to find doctors and lack of available doctors were what “most prevents people in your community from getting medical treatment” in Suffolk. Lack of insurance and inability to pay copays and deductibles were the leading barriers in Nassau.
- Suffolk residents said recreation facilities and safe work sites were “most needed to improve the health of your community.” In Nassau, healthier food choices and clean air and water were the top needs.
- Nassau residents said blood pressure, diabetes and cancer are the “health screenings or education/information services” most needed in their community. Suffolk residents listed prenatal care, cancer and HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
SOURCE: Long Island Health Collaborative survey of 2,474 Long Islanders in 2018. The respondents roughly mirror the Island’s racial demographics, but there is an overrepresentation of older people and low-income people.
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