Nearly Half a Million New Yorkers to Lose Health Coverage Due to GOP Cuts to State Health Funding
Congressman Lawler Helped Pass the Republican Tax Law, Which is Now Forcing New York to Scrap its Expanded Coverage Program
NEW YORK — Thanks to severely reduced funding for state health programs, New York has just announced that it will be forced to scrap its expanded coverage program, the Essential Plan, causing 450,000 New Yorkers to lose access to low-cost health coverage. In July, Congressman Lawler voted for the passage of the Republican Tax Law, which cut trillions of dollars from healthcare and food assistance programs, including cuts to state health programs like the Essential Plan.
This news comes as Rep. Lawler and his Republican colleagues are once again putting the healthcare of their constituents in jeopardy by refusing to make permanent key healthcare tax credits that have made coverage more affordable for New Yorkers. While many would like to see these tax credits made permanent, Rep. Lawler is instead looking to extend the cost-reducing policy by only a single year, putting politics over the needs of their constituents by pushing the expiration date to just after the 2026 midterms.
“Once again, people in the Hudson Valley are losing access to affordable healthcare because of the direct actions of Congressman Mike Lawler,” said Nancy Vann, a resident of Peekskill. “He doesn’t care about actually helping to lower our costs—he just wants us to think that he does. If Congressman Lawler actually cared about making healthcare more affordable for working families here in New York, he would fight to restore the critical healthcare funding that he has just helped to cut and work with others in Congress to make these tax credits permanent.”
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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.
