Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson joined health advocates and community leaders on April 30 to call on New York City to declare a Diabetes Health Emergency and implement a Citywide Diabetes Reduction Plan, citing the disease’s devastating toll on poor and minority communities and the need for a diabetes prevention program, especially in the Bronx.
Gibson spoke at a Diabetes Action Summit held at BronxCare Hospital, co-hosted by her office and Health People, a Bronx-based nonprofit focused on health equity. The summit brought renewed urgency to the city’s diabetes crisis, which affects an estimated 1 million residents and has led to a sharp rise in diabetes-related complications, including lower-limb amputations and dialysis.
“Diabetes is not just a health issue — it’s a crisis that is devastating families and disproportionately impacting our Black, Brown, and low-income communities, especially here in the Bronx,” Gibson said. “We are sounding the alarm and calling on New York City to declare a Diabetes Health Emergency and implement a comprehensive, Citywide Diabetes Reduction Plan. This is a moment for bold leadership. The cost of inaction is too high — in lives lost, limbs amputated, and billions of dollars drained from our healthcare system. We cannot afford to wait. The time to act is now.”
The summit highlighted a proposal to secure a Medicaid waiver that would allow public funds to cover community-based diabetes prevention training—an approach supporters say would reduce healthcare costs and save thousands of lives. The waiver would permit Medicaid to cover the cost of training residents as to how to lower their blood sugar levels—thereby reducing the skyrocketing number of amputations and preventative deaths.
