When most people hear about the Republican Tax Law, they think about tax cuts. What receives far less attention is how the law pays for those tax breaks—and what it means for healthcare in New York.
The law includes nearly $900 billion in Medicaid cuts nationwide, with New York expected to lose as much as $128 billion in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade. That’s a staggering reduction for a program that provides health coverage and long-term care to nearly 6.7 million New Yorkers.
The result is what many health advocates are calling a healthcare squeeze: more people losing coverage, higher costs for those who remain insured, and growing pressure on hospitals and providers across the state.
First, coverage losses.
An estimated 860,000 New Yorkers could lose health insurance because of the law. Nearly 500,000 New Yorkers are at risk of losing access to the Essential Plan, one of the state’s most successful affordable coverage programs. In the Hudson Valley alone, approximately 28,000 residents of New York’s 17th Congressional District could lose their coverage.
Second, higher costs.
Even families who keep their insurance are likely to pay more. Affordable Care Act premiums are projected to rise by roughly 20 percent, and a 60-year-old couple in the Hudson Valley could see their healthcare costs increase by more than $1,100 per month as enhanced premium tax credits expire.
For families already struggling with the costs of housing, groceries, childcare, and transportation, healthcare is becoming one more expense that is increasingly difficult to afford.
Third, strain on the healthcare system itself.
The cuts don’t just affect people enrolled in Medicaid. They affect hospitals, nursing homes, home care providers, and community health centers that rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open.
Behind these numbers are real people.
Karen, a Yorktown resident and 21-year breast cancer survivor, says Medicaid made it possible for her seriously ill daughter to receive in-home nursing care and helps her elderly parents, ages 88 and 95, remain safely in their home today.
“For me, this isn’t politics. It’s survival,” she says.
Tracey, a Rockland County single mother and cancer survivor, spent more than two years without health insurance after losing coverage because of a preexisting condition. Medicaid protected her children, and the Affordable Care Act helped her regain coverage.
“Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act didn’t make me dependent,” she says. “They made it possible for my family to survive.”
Those stories help explain what’s at stake. The Republican Tax Law is not simply a budget decision. It represents a fundamental shift in who bears the cost of healthcare. Instead of protecting families from rising medical expenses, the law shifts more of the burden onto patients, hospitals, and local communities.
For Hudson Valley families, the healthcare squeeze is coming from every direction: higher costs, less coverage, and a healthcare system under growing strain.