Alicia Salzer, M.D.

The insurance industry's answer to rising health care costs is to increasingly offer high deductible plans and catastrophic-only insurance that only covers surgery, hospitalizations and the like. This means that in 2012, tons of New Yorkers will avoid going to the doctor to save money. And that's a problem because you miss the chance to diagnose problems in the early stages and intervene before things get out of hand. We hope that this insurance trend does not translate into people ordering prescriptions online and trying to diagnose themselves via the Internet.

All over America, when people get sick, they take advantage of their neighborhood Urgent Care Center-all over America except New York, that is. The Big Apple is very late in joining this national trend, yet our ER wait times are some of the longest in the country: 60 percent of people who are in ERs don't need to be there and we all know how hard it is to get a same-day appointment with your doctor. Visiting an Urgent Care Center like Medhattan Immediate Medical Care is a new option in 2012 for New Yorkers.