Coronavirus highlights socioeconomic inequality in New York City
COVID-19 has decimated poorer neighborhoods. And the impacts will be long term for people relying on safety net programs.
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Coronavirus hit New York City hard. One major key to survival is socioeconomic status.
The death rate from COVID-19 is 232 for every 100,000 people in zip codes where at least 30% of people live in poverty — compared to 100 in low-poverty neighborhoods, where less than 10% of the population is poor. Living in more crowded areas causes this highly contagious disease to spread easily. And people struggling for money might refrain from going to the hospital until they have to due to high health care costs with a lack of insurance. By the time they get care, it may be too late.
Coronavirus also has a larger impact on black patients compared to patients of other races; the socioeconomic and racial disparities show cracks that exist in our current health care system.
Long term effects
Increased unemployment nationwide has hit government tax revenues: Social security may reach insolvency — meaning the cost of the program would exceed its income — by 2030. This could lead to smaller payouts for recipients; other reserves, like the program’s disability fund, are not expected to scrape the bottom of the barrel until 2052. The last time social security reached insolvency was in 1982.
Before this crisis, the last government projection was 2035, but some economists say that given the lower tax revenue and an increased number of people applying for benefits, 2030 is a more reasonable estimate.
And states across the country are facing similar budget crises that have not been seen since the Great Recession. Governor Gavin Newsom of California has proposed massive budget cuts to avoid taking a large deficit. Some of these cuts include a freeze on Medi-Cal expansion that is estimated to save $113 million, which may exacerbate the current health care issues. However, California policymakers are required by law to balance the budget, despite a current projected $54 billion deficit due to the lost revenue.
A previous version of this article mistakenly said that social security would deplete reserves by 2030. GovSight regrets this error.
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