Local Health Care Advocates Join Protect Our Care to Call for an End to GOP Attacks on New Yorkers’ Health Care
View photos of today’s event here.
KINGSTON, NEW YORK- This morning, Protect Our Care’s nationwide bus tour arrived in Kingston to call attention to the ongoing Republican war on health care care. Headlined by Assemblymember Kevin Cahill, small business owner Pat Strong, and cancer survivor Laura Packard, the event highlighted the actions Republicans are taking to harm New Yorkers’ care and called on Republicans to work instead to protect our health care.
“I’m alive because of the Affordable Care Act,” said Packard. “I’m a stage four cancer survivor and I’m on this tour to defend our attacks against the GOP. President Trump may have blocked me on Twitter, but he can’t stop me and the American people from fighting to protect our care.”
Her sentiments were echoed by Assemblymember Cahill:
“We in New York state have been doing our part to make sure the protections in the Affordable Care Act remain in New York state and we are committed to making sure every New Yorker has access to health care,” said Assemblymember Cahill. Health champions in the legislature expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and as a result an additional 143,000 New Yorkers have gained coverage. “The policies we’re so upset about coming out of the White House are also the policies of this Congress, and we need to fight back,” he said.
Indeed, small business owner Pat Strong spoke of her struggles to afford quality insurance. “Our premiums are too high and we’re struggling with prescription drug costs,“ she said. Because of Republican sabotage, it is estimated that New Yorkers will see their premiums rise by an average of 8.6 percent next year. And if the U.S. House of Representatives-passed American Health Care Act had become law, out of pocket costs for older people could have increased by as much as $3,679 by 2026 in New York.
“A few weeks ago, a column ran that said: Get sick, go broke, and die. And that really is the Republican agenda,” said local resident Paul Cooper, who emphasized that he is “angry” about the continued attacks on health care. Republicans in Washington have cut hundreds of billions of dollars have been cut from Medicare and Medicaid.
Later today, “Care Force One” will head to Binghamton, where Protect Our Care will be joined by Ron Deutsch, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, Julie Weisburg of Family Planning Advocates of South Central New York, Jim Carr of the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, and New Yorkers Linda Quilty and Mike Hermann. For more information, please visit protectourcarebustour.com.