Governor Hochul Proposes Plan to Preserve Many New Yorkers’ Continued Enrollment in the Essential Plan
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Governor Hochul, along with the New York State Department of Health (DOH), announced a plan this week to preserve continued enrollment in New York’s Essential Plan for more than one million New Yorkers following deep cuts in federal funding arising from the recently enacted H.R.1. The proposed move would end New York’s expanded Essential Plan which provided low-cost health insurance coverage for those with incomes of up to 250% FPL. Instead, New York would return to its Basic Health Plan Program, authorized by the ACA, which would preserve coverage for those – including legal immigrants – with incomes of up to 200% FPL, which is approximately 1.3 million people of the nearly 1.7 million currently enrolled in the Essential Plan. While the change will result in many losing eligibility for this program, the proposal, if implemented, will help to preserve coverage eligibility for hundreds of thousands who otherwise would have lost coverage as a result of the provisions of HR 1. It may also help to significantly reduce the lost federal funds that New York would incur.
MSSNY recently joined a letter with several other patient and healthcare provider advocacy groups expressing support for this concept to preserve coverage and funding.
