New York City Mayoral Candidate Discusses Health Care Issues on Campaign Trail

In the race for the Democratic mayoral nomination in New York City, Fernando Ferrer, Bronx borough president, discussed health care issues on the campaign trail on Aug. 6, calling for "making health care more accessible to poor people and immigrants," the New York Times reports. Ferrer said that he hopes to use more of the city's share of the national tobacco settlement to treat the uninsured, adding that "there are many people, many of them children, who lack access to the kind of primary, preventive health care services that are absolutely essential for a healthy life, a stable life and a healthy society." In addition, he promised to install nebulizers -- devices used to treat asthma -- in every elementary and middle school. He also pointed out that the city plans to spend $97 million a year to expand jails, funds that he said "would be better spent on health care facilities." New York City will hold the Democratic mayoral primary on Sept. 11 (Cooper, New York Times, 8/7).