NEW YORK — Maya Wiley’s mayoral campaign got a much-needed boost back in February when she was endorsed by the health care workers union, 1199 SEIU, which is the largest union in the city.

And it’s probably no coincidence that one of Wiley’s signature proposals centers around health care, though she takes a more expansive view of what she calls the “care economy.”

It addresses the fact that women, and in particular women of color, have been increasingly thrust into the role of caregiver, whether that means caring for children, or caring for elderly, sick, or family members with disabilities. In many cases those women have been driven from the workforce during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Wiley’s plan would compensate them for this unpaid labor, by giving $5,000 grants to 100,000 of the city’s lowest-income residents who care for loved ones. Some have compared it to Andrew Yang’s plan for a Universal Basic Income.

Wiley also wants to set up dozens of community care centers around the city that would provide free child care and elder care, in addition to a host of other services.

She’d pay for her program in part by hiring fewer new police and correction officers.

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Meanwhile, a number of candidates have made maternal health a focus of their health care plans. That includes Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who likes to say “the first classroom is in the mother’s womb.”

One of his proposals is to offer doulas to all first-time mothers. The program would involve 150 doulas spread throughout the city’s public hospitals, covering about 6,000 births a year. The cost to the city would be about $10 million a year. He’s also suggested setting up training programs for doulas.

Adams is also probably the most health-conscious of the candidates for mayor. Five years ago, after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, he adopted a health and fitness regimen that is now a defining part of his persona. He recently donned boxing gloves for a photo op to mark the return of indoor fitness classes.

And Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, has also placed an emphasis on childbirth as part of her health care plan. She would focus the city’s outreach on Black mothers, who are far more likely to die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.

She would also expand midwife and doula programs, and is calling for the state to create a SUNY Midwifery scholarship program.

Other leading Democratic mayoral candidates’ positions on health care:

  • Proposes creating a three-tiered New York City public health insurance option to fill federal and state insurance coverage gaps with a focus on primary care access
  • Wants every New Yorker to be within 15 minutes of a primary care physician
  • Calls for encouraging the development of primary care clinics in underserved neighborhoods
  • Supports increasing emergency room capacity in low-income neighborhoods by expanding the city’s Health + Hospital Express Care Centers
  • Calls for the creation of community health clinics across the city to provide preventative primary care
  • Supports universal access to doulas, midwives, physicians, and nurses, as well as free prenatal care for expecting mothers

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