By Joe Anuta
Repealing the Affordable Health Care Act would leave hundreds of thousands of Queens residents without insurance and negatively affect millions more, according to U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills), who spoke Monday hours before a Florida federal judge ruled the entire health-care plan unconstitutional.
Weiner, a vocal supporter of health-care reform, voted against the bill put forth by House Republicans called “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” which passed Jan. 19 — but he is still happy it was drafted.
“We are having a debate in Washington that is, to some degree, very useful,” he said during a news conference outside the shuttered Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills. “It is an opportunity for us to take stock of what this law means for Queens and New York. It allows us to ask, ‘What if?’”
Weiner had plenty of answers.
According to his office, health care repeal would prevent 385,000 Queens residents from receiving basic health-care insurance who would otherwise be covered under the current laws and put 1.9 million Queens residents at risk of losing their insurance.
Repeal would be especially costly for the senior citizens of Queens, according to Weiner, who said that repeal would deny 292,000 seniors preventive care like free colonoscopies or mammogram screenings and deprive 26,000 seniors who fall into a coverage gap in Medicare Plan D of funds to pay for prescription medications.
“This would be a real cost to Queens,” Weiner said.
But repealing the law would also affect young Queens residents like Marisa Bearak, a 22-year-old college graduate who joined Weiner at the news conference and is covered under her parents’ insurance until she turns 26 under the current plan. There are about 8,000 uninsured Queens residents between the ages of 19 and 25, he said.
Repeal would also cost local businesses, which would lose tax subsidies, but also taxpayers who often foot the cost of uninsured residents who walk into an emergency room and receive treatment they cannot pay for.
Hospitals also end up paying, Weiner said, which is a main reason he supports reform.
No New York representatives voted for the repeal bill, including Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside), who has spoken out sharply against repeal.
“Republicans and Democrats should be working together to figure out how to make things better,” Ackerman said. “You don’t make things better by taking away these critical and necessary health benefits.”
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
