Health Plus - Warm Embrace of a Coat Given with Love

For Immediate Release

Warm Embrace of a Coat Given with Love
Health Plus Sponsors 20th Annual New York Cares Coat Drive

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New York, New York - December 12, 2009 — This morning, New York Cares welcomed NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly as the city’s preeminent volunteer organization officially marked the 20th anniversary of its famed Coat Drive – which has grown from a cherished tradition to a vital lifeline that many New Yorkers have come to depend on for warmth and safety of themselves and their loved ones. Once again, as it has for the past five years, managed care organization Health Plus was there at the Bowery Mission in lower Manhattan to support the event. Joining Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer for Health Plus, Ada Rodriguez, and Gary Bagley, Executive Director of New York Cares, on this cold, bright morning, were nearly 100 homeless New Yorkers, each one receiving a free coat at this first of many distribution events.

Each winter, for twenty years, the New York Cares Coat Drive has meant safety from the cold for thousands of New Yorkers. Health Plus, working with the NYPD, MTA, UPS, and several other charitable organizations and businesses, will collect coats – estimated to be as many as 80,000 -- at hundreds of locations in the five boroughs. The coats will eventually be distributed to New Yorkers in need.

“We have the privilege of being able to do many events for the city and for the community,” said Ada Rodriguez, “but we have always felt a special affinity with this program, and cherish our partnership with New York Cares. We know that tens of thousands of New Yorkers depend on this event for their winter coat, and we want to do the best we can to ensure that no one is left out in the cold.”

Two cheerful and now warm New Yorkers try on their new winter coats, as they stand in front of Gary Bagley, Ada Rodriguez, and Raymond Kelly, at the Bowery Mission.

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Health Plus, a not-for-profit, multi-cultural organization, is one of the fastest growing managed care organizations in New York City. It was established in 1984 with a commitment to provide coordinated quality health care and improving access to health care for uninsured and underserved families. In its annual review of managed care plans, the New York State Department of Health ranked Health Plus as the top plan for quality in its 2002 and 2003 "Consumer's Guide to Medicaid Managed Care in New York City." Health Plus is New York City's leading provider of Child Health Plus, a New York State Department of Health program that offers parents FREE or low-cost health insurance for children under the age of 19. "CRAIN'S New York Business" magazine ranked Health Plus fifth among the largest health maintenance organizations in the New York area.