New York families already face some of the steepest health care costs in the nation, with premiums and deductibles eating up bigger chunks of household budgets every year. New York’s Department of Financial Services has warned that Obamacare premiums are climbing in 2026. While insurers initially sought a 13.5% increase, state officials approved a 7.1% rise—still enough to strain working families already juggling rising costs.
Instead of confronting the underlying reasons why health care is so expensive, lawmakers often prefer the political expediency of masking rising costs with more handouts. Sadly, New York’s own Rep. Mike Lawler (R) is opting for this very strategy. Rather than promoting tough reforms to lower health care costs for New Yorkers, he wants taxpayers to shovel even more money to the insurance industry.
In Washington, nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program. Case in point: President Biden’s short-term COVID-era enhanced subsidies for Obamacare that Congress now wants to extend permanently. For the sake of taxpayers, fiscal responsibility, and sound health care policy, Congress should let these expensive and wasteful COVID-era tax credits expire at the end of this year.
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