The Grim Slasher? President Trump. Photo Gage Skidmore-Flickr
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has lashed at President Trump’s executive order to slash subsidies to Americans for Affordable Care Act insurance purchase and the state’s Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman plans to sue the administration.
“President Trump and ultraconservatives in congress are continuing their reckless assault on our health care and going after our New York values,” Cuomo said. “The president’s executive order pulls the rug from under the affordable care act, which helped New York expand access to affordable health care to millions of New Yorkers, and takes aim at essential health benefits and protections for people with pre-existing conditions. And if the federal government were to move forward with the proposal to facilitate the unrestricted purchase of insurance across state lines, it would create a race to the bottom on consumer protections for New Yorkers.”
Cuomo added: “This is just the latest action that targets New York following congress’s failure to renew the child health insurance plan and the Health Centers Program, putting our children and the most vulnerable among us at risk to lose access to health care. In New York, we believe health care is a right, not a luxury. We have taken aggressive actions to ensure that whatever happens in Washington, essential health benefits will continue to be the rule in New York, not the exception, and we will continue to fight for quality and affordable health care for all New Yorkers.”
“Hundreds of thousands of New York families rely on the affordable care act’s subsidies for their health care – and again and again, President Trump has threatened to cut off these subsidies to undermine our healthcare system and force Congress to the negotiating table. That’s unacceptable,” Schneiderman, the attorney general said. “I will not allow president Trump to once again use New York families as political pawns in his dangerous, partisan campaign to eviscerate the affordable care act at any cost. This summer, the courts granted our intervention to defend these vital subsidies and the quality, affordable health care they ensure for millions of families across the country. Our coalition of states stands ready to sue if president Trump cuts them off.”
In May, Schneiderman and California attorney general Xavier Becerra, leading a coalition of 18 attorneys general, moved to intervene in House v. Price in order to protect millions of Americans’ access to affordable health care. The DC Circuit granted their intervention in August.
