FYI: A slew of reports chronicling access to health insurance in New York turned up this week, as state-level advocates and the healthcare industry gear up to fight Governor Pataki’s proposed Medicaid cuts and national players begin debating the Bush administration’s controversial plan to remake the federal funding model. In the Community Service Society’s survey of 200 Medicaid applicants in New York City, nearly half of respondents said the requirement that they document income and residence were the main barrier keeping them from signing up, while 41 percent reported existing medical problems that needed treatment. Families USA meanwhile reported that 30 percent of New York state residents under 65, or nearly 5 million people, were uninsured at some point during 2001 and 2002 (mirroring the national percentage). Sixty-two percent of those people were without coverage for more than six months. And Working Today, a national advocacy and service organization for independent workers, presented an analysis to the City Council arguing that an independent worker in New York City must make $100,000 a year to afford private health insurance. [3/6/03]