As the Government Moves to Reopen, New Yorkers are Still Left Worrying Over Skyrocketing Health Care Costs
Congressman Mike Lawler Has Refused to Support Plans to Make Key Health Care Tax Credits Permanent
NEW YORK — As Washington begins to emerge from the longest shutdown in American history, families across New York are still trying to figure out how they will cope with skyrocketing health care costs. Despite the Senate vote to reopen the government, Republicans in Congress still refuse to make expiring health care tax credits permanent, increasing health care costs for working families by hundreds of dollars per month.
Republicans have created an affordability crisis for New Yorkers: they have cut Medicaid and SNAP while raising energy and health care costs. More than 118,000 New Yorkers rely on ACA tax credits to afford their insurance premiums, including 7,000 residents of Rep. Mike Lawler’s district. Because of these price hikes, the Urban Institute estimates that 4.8 million Americans will be unable to afford their premiums and be forced off their insurance next year.
“People are celebrating the end of this shutdown, but working families here in New York are still facing skyrocketing health care costs with no solution in sight,” said Lynn, a mother of two from Yorktown. “Congressman Lawler talked a big game during the shutdown, but now that it’s over, I want him to stop talking and start doing. While he’s been enjoying a two-month paid vacation, families across his district have been receiving letters informing them that their insurance premiums are about to go up by hundreds of dollars each month. Rep. Lawler needs to demand a vote on making these health care tax credits permanent. Not a measly one-year extension, but 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.
