LETTER: New York insurers say Washington is to blame for rising healthcare premiums
To the Editor:
New York health insurers announced earlier this week that they will need double-digit premium increases next year because of reckless votes in Congress that dismantled a key part of the Affordable Care Act.
Fourteen insurers have filed 2019 rate hike requests averaging 24 percent and topping out at 38.6 percent. Insurers have laid the blame for the steep increases at the feet of Congressional Republicans, including Rep. Claudia Tenney, who voted to repeal the individual mandate, a pillar of the ACA, late last year. Insurers say their average requested rate increase would be cut in half if the individual mandate was still in place.
Once again, hardworking New York families are paying the price for Rep. Tenney’s political stunts in Washington. Upstate New Yorkers deserve better than someone who gambles with their health insurance to score political points.
Now, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are going to have to pay more for healthcare. We need a stable federal system in place to bring premiums down and ensure access to quality care.
I’ll continue to fight to help Upstate New Yorkers get better access to affordable healthcare.
This is not the first time Rep. Tenney has voted to cut New Yorkers’ healthcare. In May of 2017, she voted for the American Health Care Act, a bill to repeal major portions of the Affordable Care Act that would have caused 23 million Americans to lose their health insurance.
Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, Utica, Democratic candidate for New York’s 22nd Congressional District.