Obamacare & More Featured on Tonight's METROFOCUS

A new edition of the award-winning MetroFocus premieres in the New York metro area tonight, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW21 and Thursday, October 24 at 8:30 p.m. on THIRTEEN and at 10:30 p.m. on NJTV.

The next edition of MetroFocus features some of the best segments from the past months beginning with an in-depth look at what happens now that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is rolling out. Reporter Rick Karr talks to the people on the frontlines who are explaining the new health care exchange and Medicaid rules in New York. Karr visits The Floating Hospital in Long Island City, one of the city's oldest hospitals serving the poor, where the staff will have to manage new Medicaid enrollment and help the uninsured navigate the new insurance plans.

Host Rafael Pi Roman follows up with an in-studio discussion with Avik Roy, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Jim Tallon, President of the United Hospital Fund of New York. Roy tells Pi Roman,"Globally across the country, on average people will see rates increase." But Tallon warns, "Beware of averages!" Tallon says, "The most important message is, if you're looking for health insurance coverage, go visit the exchange, visit the marketplace and see how it works for you."

What changes has Mayor Michael Bloomberg made to New York's skyline? Since 2001, New York City's architecture and development changed dramatically. Pi Roman talks with New York Magazine architecture critic and Pulitzer prize-winner Justin Davidson about the city's landscape and changes still to come "after Bloomberg."

The two leading candidates for mayor call Brooklyn home. So what do we Need to Know about the borough? Longtime Brooklyn historian John Manbeck joins the program to talk about his new book ,"Chronicles of Historic Brooklyn," and Brooklyn's journey from a separate city to home of the hipsters.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, a native of Rockville Centre on Long Island, talks to Jim Paymar, host of the program Long Island Conversations, about her new book "The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism." And can one person draw all the buildings in New York?

Meet James Gulliver Hancock, a young artist and author who sees more than bricks and mortar as he draws his way through the boroughs.

Website: thirteen.org/MetroFocus

Facebook: facebook.com/MetroFocus

Twitter: @MetroFocus

MetroFocus Series Overview

MetroFocus is an award-winning multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. The MetroFocus television program features interviews, in-depth reporting, content from many partners and solutions-oriented reports from the community. Major areas of coverage include sustainability, education, science and technology, the environment, transportation, poverty and underserved communities. MetroFocus.orgamplifies that reporting with daily updates and original stories that also cover culture, government and politics, the economy, urban development and other news in the metropolitan region. More information at:thirteen.org/metrofocus/about-us-faq/

MetroFocus is a production of WLIW21 in association with WNET, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.

MetroFocus is made possible by James and Merryl Tisch, the Ford Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Charlotte and David Ackert, Jody and John Arnhold, Betty and John Levin and the Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation. Corporate funding is provided by Mutual of America.

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