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NEW REPORT SHOWS REPUBLICAN HEALTH CARE SABOTAGE WILL INCREASE 2019 FAMILY PREMIUMS BY MORE THAN $2,500 ACROSS CENTRAL NEW YORK

As Premiums Continue To Rise, Negating Meager TrumpTax Savings, Republicans Plan To Unveil Second Round Of Devastating Tax Cuts

SYRACUSE — Ongoing Republican efforts to sabotage health care, supported by Congressmembers Claudia Tenney and John Katko, will increase insurance premiums for families in both members’ districts by more than $2,500 in 2019, according to a new report published today by The Center For American Progress.

In Tenney’s district, premiums for a family of four will jump by an estimated $2,510 next year. In Katko’s district, the increase will be even higher – $2,760. 

The dramatic spikes in cost are being driven by ongoing efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, and the single largest factor is the TrumpTax’s repeal of the individual mandate, which both Tenney and Katko voted to pass. In the months following the tax scam’s passage, the Trump administration also began pushing junk insurance plans nationwide, encouraging the use of short-term insurance plans that don’t cover even basic medical necessities.

“Most insurers have specifically cited the repeal of the individual mandate in their actuarial memorandums,” the CAP report found. “In New York, insurers attributed about half their large requested increases to mandate repeal.”

New York insurers are requesting average rate hikes of 24 percent, with some requesting increases of nearly 40 percent.

Even as working families across Central New York face massive premium hikes, Republicans are getting ready to unveil a second round of tax breaks that overwhelmingly serve wealthy corporations and the rich. Despite the growing unpopularity of the initial TrumpTax, the next round would again funnel the vast majority of benefits to the richest fraction of the country.

In the eight months since the first tax scam passed, worker wages have remained stagnant– even decreasing in some areas – and annual costs for the majority of earners are expected to rise as a result of the repeal of the individual mandate. For the bottom 60 percent of New York earners, annual costs will increase by an average $187, negating the meager savings provided by the tax cuts themselves.

Tenney and Katko remain staunch supporters of the TrumpTax despite the lack of any benefits for their own constituents, even hosting events with Ivanka Trump earlier this month to tout the tax scam. Tenney recently earned four Pinocchios from the Washington Post for claiming the TrumpTax had already paid for itself, while in reality, it blew a $1.5 trillion hole in the deficit that Republicans have since tried to plug by making draconian cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicare and SNAP.

Katko continues to insist the TrumpTax is increasing wages and helping workers, despite no evidence to support his claim. Corporations are instead spending their billions in tax breaks on massive stock buybacks to reward shareholders and executives, at 88 times the ratethey’re spending money on worker raises or bonuses. Since the tax scam passed, just 4.3 percent of workers nationwide have gotten a raise or bonus.

The TrumpTax is raising costs for families nationwide, negating its meager tax cuts for working families by undermining the Affordable Care Act and spurring enormous spikes in insurance costs. Tenney and Katko supported the law despite health care experts nationwide warning Congress that it would lead to significant premium increases.