section_path: Human resources/Health
section_name: Health
paragraph_text: Health
  
  New York City is a center for healthcare and medical training, with employment of over 750,000 in the city's health care sector. Private hospitals in New York City include the Hospital for Special Surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and NYU Langone Health. Medical schools include SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, and CUNY School of Medicine, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Weill Cornell Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and New York University School of Medicine in Manhattan.
  
  NYC Health + Hospitals (HHC) is a public-benefit corporation established in 1969 which operates the city's public hospitals and a network of outpatient clinics. As of 2021, HHC is the largest American municipal healthcare system with $10.9 billion in annual revenues. HHC serves 1.4 million patients, including more than 475,000 uninsured city residents. HHC operates eleven acute-care hospitals, four skilled nursing facilities, six diagnostic and treatment centers, and more than 70 community-based primary care sites, serving primarily the city's poor and working-class residents. HHC's MetroPlus Health Plan is one of New York City's largest providers of government-sponsored health insurance, enrolling 670,000 city residents as of June 2022.
  
  HHC's facilities annually provides service to millions of New Yorkers, interpreted in more than 190 languages. The best-known hospital in the HHC system is Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States, established in 1736. Bellevue is the designated hospital for treatment of the president and other world leaders should they require care while in New York City.
  
  The city banned smoking in most parts of restaurants in 1995 and prohibited smoking in bars, restaurants and places of public employment in 2003. Pharmacies are banned from selling smoked and vaped products in New York State.
  
  New York City enforces a right-to-shelter law guaranteeing shelter to anyone who needs it, regardless of their immigration, socioeconomic, or housing status, which entails providing adequate shelter and food. As a result, while New York has the highest total homeless population of American cities, only 5% were unsheltered by the city, representing a significantly lower percentage of outdoor homelessness than in other cities. As of 2023, there were 92,824 homeless people sleeping nightly in the shelter system.