In an effort to promote the early detection of prostate cancer, Assemblyman Dinowitz authored a bill granting New York City public employees the right to take up to four hours of paid leave annually for screenings to detect the disease (A.409B). Currently, public employees outside of the city of New York are entitled to up to four hours of paid leave per year for prostate cancer screening; this law would give city employees the same benefit as their peers in the rest of the state.

“This benefit should apply to all New Yorkers,” said Assemblyman Dinowitz. “Every year nearly 15,000 men in New York State are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and almost 1,700 die from the disease. Very simply, this bill puts New York City employees on an equal basis with New York State employees, and has the potential to save thousands of lives in the years to come. Though there is much we don’t know about cancer, one of the few things the medical community is absolutely certain of, is that early detection yields more positive treatment results. It is my hope that this bill will foster greater accessibility to prostate screenings for city employees.”

The Assemblyman’s bill was passed along with A.10679, which, in addition to providing New York City public employees with the same four hours a year for breast cancer screenings, also prohibits annual deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance payments for screening and diagnostic imaging for the detection of breast cancer.