On Friday evening, Donald Trump is heading to the Hudson Valley area in a desperate attempt to save Rep. Lawler’s campaign as the GOP health care crisis ravages the nation. Hudson Valley families and Americans nationwide are suffering from increased health care costs that are the direct result of Trump’s failed policies. For working New Yorkers, health care costs are skyrocketing, and the math just isn’t adding up. Rep. Lawler cast a key vote to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations, which will rip away Medicaid coverage from 37,000 New Yorkers and ACA coverage from 2,300 others in his district. Now, health insurance premiums are spiking by hundreds of dollars, drug prices are increasing, hospitals are closing, and Empire State residents are being forced to make impossible choices between paying for health coverage and other basic needs like rent and groceries — while Trump’s wealthy buddies cash in with some of the biggest tax breaks in American history.
In response to Trump’s desperate visit, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:
“Trump is stumping for Mike Lawler because the GOP’s war on health care is backfiring, and Hudson Valley families are paying the price.
“To bankroll tax breaks for the billionaires living in Billionaires’ Row and big corporations swimming in cash on Wall Street, Trump and Lawler gutted $1 trillion from health care. While Lawler himself dismissed this as ‘not a major cut,’ the reality is that it’s left in its wake more than 30 New York hospitals and clinics shuttering, at risk of closing their doors, or reducing services. At the same time, Hudson Valley families are watching their medical bills skyrocket from hundreds to thousands of dollars more per month, leaving them with a gnawing fear of what they’ll have to give up to keep the coverage that lets them see a doctor when they’re sick. No amount of gaslighting can change this reality. Trump’s war on health care, and the role Lawler happily played in it, will cost them both dearly in November.”
BY THE NUMBERS: Trump’s War on Health Care in New York
- Thanks to GOP premium hikes, 27,000 people in NY-17 will lose their health care coverage entirely this year alone, including small business owners, farmers, and older adults.
- This is just the beginning. Thanks to the big, ugly bill and GOP premium hikes, an estimated 860,000 New Yorkers will lose their health care by 2034.
- More than 205,574 New Yorkers who buy insurance through the ACA are now forced to pay an average of $877 more annually for health coverage. Premiums for New Yorkers receiving ACA tax credits have increased by an average of 56 percent this year:
- A 45-year-old in New York making $64,000 saw their average annual premium costs rise by $4,508 to hit $9,948 this year.
- A 60-year-old couple in New York making $85,000 saw their average annual premium costs rise by $12,671 to hit $19,896 this year.
- A family of four in New York making $130,000 saw their average annual premium costs rise by $17,132 to hit $28,352 this year.
- All New Yorkers will be impacted by GOP health care cuts, regardless of how they get their coverage. New York hospitals are expected to lose $41 billion in Medicaid funding and $70 million in ACA funding due to the cuts. Hospitals and clinics across the country are being forced to shutter, cut services, or are at great risk.
Trump and Republicans Are Gutting New York’s Health Care Infrastructure
New York Hospitals and Clinics Are Already Folding Under the Weight of Trump’s Health Care Cuts. Across New York, hospitals and clinics are folding under the weight of Trump and the GOP’s massive $1 trillion cut to Medicaid, including Good Samaritan Hospital that is at-risk of closure in Rep. Lawler’s own district. 31 New York hospitals and clinics are at-risk, six have announced cuts, four have announced closures, four wards have closed, nine facilities have closed, and one hospital has closed, including:
- AT-RISK: Brooklyn Hospital Center
- AT-RISK: Nassau University Medical Center (Hospital)
- AT-RISK: Silver Lake Specialized Care and Rehab Center (Facility)
- AT-RISK: Good Samaritan Hospital
- CUTS ANNOUNCED: One Brooklyn Health (Hospital)
- CUTS ANNOUNCED: Northwell Health (Hospital)
- CUTS ANNOUNCED: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- CLOSURE ANNOUNCED: Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture
- WARD CLOSED: Nassau University Medical Center – Labor & Delivery (Ward)
- HOSPITAL CLOSED: Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital