Health Insurance Premiums Skyrocket for Thousands of Hudson Valley Households

Congressman Lawler Failed to Take Action Until It Was Too Late, Now New Yorkers are Paying the Price

HUDSON VALLEY, NEW YORK — As New Yorkers conclude their New Year’s celebrations and look forward to 2026, thousands of families across the Hudson Valley are now trying to figure out how to shoulder the burden of skyrocketing premium costs, thanks to the expiration of the Affordable Care Act tax credits they had previously relied on. Despite Congressman Lawler finally caving to mounting pressure from his constituents and signing the House discharge petition on a three-year extension of the credits, it was too little and too late for families struggling to make ends meet.

“As families like mine are struggling to afford the care we need, Congressman Mike Lawler did what he always does—the bare minimum,” said Karen, a cancer survivor and now-former tax credit recipient from Yorktown. “He signed the discharge petition at the very last minute so that he could claim to be fighting for us without actually doing anything to fix the problem. The tax credits have now expired, premiums have shot up, and my husband and I are looking at paying thousands of dollars more this year for ever worse coverage. Where’s Congressman Lawler’s concern for families like ours? Did he ever really care, or was it all just a calculated performance?"

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About Empire State Voices 

Empire State Voices (ESV) is a multi-year campaign dedicated to amplifying the voices of everyday working New Yorkers. ESV is fighting for economic policies that make life more affordable for constituents and holding members of Congress across the state accountable when they fail to do the same.