Health insurance coverage improves physical and mental health outcomes, including life expectancy and stabilizes enrollees’ financial security by reducing medical debt and bankruptcies. Nearly all New Yorkers can access comprehensive, affordable health care through the Marketplace, except some immigrants because of their immigration status. This situation amplifies existing health disparities. Last year, Governor Kathy Hochul […]
Two new laws will protect New Yorkers from medical debt in 2023. The first bill, signed by Governor Hochul in November, stops all medical providers from garnishing patients’ wages or placing liens on their homes to collect medical debt judgments (S.6522A/A.7363A). The second bill, signed last week, reforms the practice of imposing facility fees by […]
By Heidi Siegfried, Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York (CIDNY) The Affordable Care Act increased the income eligibility level for adults without disabilities to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level ($1,563 a month) in 2012. Despite this change, Michael Howard, a 40-year-old man with a mild intellectual developmental learning disability, whose income […]
This summer, New York leaders passed two key pieces of legislation that would provide much-needed relief to patients burdened by medical debt: S.6522A/A.7363A: Prohibits a lien being placed on a person’s primary residence for medical debt judgments and prohibits wage garnishment for medical debt judgments. S.2521C/A.3470C: Requires hospitals to disclose additional “facility fees,” which cover […]
