Senate and Assembly Health Chairs Urge Governor Hochul to Address Healthcare Coverage Loss Issue in Budget

 

450,000 New Yorkers face healthcare coverage loss beginning July 1, 2026

Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Amy Paulin alongside more than 75 legislators sent a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul urging the state to take action and protect access to affordable health coverage in this year’s budget. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are at risk of losing their health insurance due to the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans' blatant inaction on marketplace premium assistance and the implementation of the 2025 federal budget reconciliation bill, H.R.1 (HR1).

“The devastating cuts from Washington will leave millions of New Yorkers without adequate or affordable healthcare coverage, threatening our entire healthcare ecosystem,” said State Senator Gustavo Rivera. “In the midst of an unprecedented affordability crisis and abandonment by our federal government, our State needs to step up and include funding in this budget to protect basic healthcare access.”

“I look forward to working with Governor Hochul and legislative leaders to help maintain New York as a leader in health insurance coverage. The time to address this issue is now in the final budget,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin. 

Last month, in order to address this looming crisis, Assembly Health Chair Paulin and Senate Health Chair Rivera put forth a proposed solution in the form of S9589/A10926. As of May 12th, this bill has broad support including 39 co-sponsors in the Senate and 73 co-sponsors in the Assembly. 

This bill will: 

•   Direct the state to continue to provide the Essential Plan coverage for all residents with incomes between 200%-250% FPL. This protects 444,000 working families who will lose coverage under the Essential Plan on July 1, 2026.

•   Direct the state to continue to provide Essential Plan coverage to lawfully present immigrants with incomes between 133-200% of the FPL. This would cover Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and PRUCOL (permanently residing under color of law) populations, approximately 6,000 individuals.

•   Create a state funded premium assistance program to replace lost federal subsidies for New Yorkers who will lose access because of HR1. This would be for lawfully present immigrants with income between 250-400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). This is estimated to capture around 15,000 New Yorkers.

Read the letter here.