Speak Out CNY, 1199SEIU, Citizen Action & Allies Rally Against Tenney’s Votes to Raise Insurance Premiums
SPEAK OUT CENTRAL NEW YORK JOINS 1199SEIU, CITIZEN ACTION AND OTHERS TO RALLY AGAINST TENNEY’S VOTES TO RAISE CENTRAL NEW YORKERS’ INSURANCE PREMIUMS
Tenney’s Vote To Pass The TrumpTax Is Spurring Double-Digit Rate Hikes
600,000 Central New Yorkers With Pre-Existing Conditions Could Face The Loss Of Coverage Altogether
UTICA — Speak Out Central New York, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, and Central New York Citizen Action rallied today in Utica to remind their neighbors that Congresswoman Claudia Tenney voted to raise their health insurance premiums when she voted in favor of the TrumpTax six months ago this week.
“Claudia Tenney voted to raise our health insurance premiums by an average of $572 – yet she still tries to make the indefensible claim that her vote for the TrumpTax is going to put money in our pockets,” said Monica Gandara, a member of Citizen Action from Poland, New York. “Because she voted to give rich corporations and her own campaign donors a $1.5 trillion tax break, our families are now facing higher costs and could even lose our insurance. This tax scam is 100 percent about rewarding the rich, and their tax breaks come at the expense of working families across New York and the country.”
Just six months after the tax scam passed, New York insurance companies are already requesting an average rate hike of 24 percent for 2019, with some insurers requesting hikes as high as 38.6 percent. In its report on the requested increases, the state Department of Financial Services wrote, “The single biggest justification offered by insurers for the requested increases is the Trump Administration’s repeal of the individual mandate penalty.”
The dramatic spike in insurance rates as a result of the individual mandate repeal was forecasted by health insurance experts across the country, including President Trump’s own former Health & Human Services Secretary, Tom Price.
Tenney voted for the TrumpTax despite these warnings, a continuation of her ongoing effort to sabotage the Affordable Care Act regardless of the cost to her constituents. She voted last May to repeal the law altogether and strip health care from tens of thousands of her own constituents, and 23 million Americans.
As a result of Tenney’s latest vote against health care, a coalition of Republican-led states is now attempting to use the repeal of the individual mandate to overturn other critical patient protections. If these states succeed, 600,000 Central New Yorkers could lose their insurance coverage altogether simply because they suffer from preexisting conditions.
