1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

I’m writing as a New York constituent to ask you to support efforts to make health insurance independent of employment, including the New York Health Act or other legislation that would create a strong public health insurance option for New Yorkers. The possibility of losing a job is stressful enough on its own. In our current system, it can also mean losing health insurance at exactly the moment when someone is facing major financial and emotional uncertainty. That connection between employment and healthcare creates unnecessary anxiety and makes it harder for people to make rational decisions about what comes next. For me, this is also an economic issue. If I lost my job but knew that I could maintain dependable, affordable health coverage, I would be much more willing to consider starting a business or becoming self-employed. Instead, the potential loss of employer-sponsored insurance makes the safest choice finding another traditional job as quickly as possible. New York should want its residents to take risks, start companies, hire people, and pursue new ideas. We should not have a system that effectively tells someone, “You can become an entrepreneur, but you may have to risk your access to healthcare to do it.” The New York Health Act, S3425/A1466, proposes a universal publicly funded health plan covering New Yorkers regardless of employment or other status. Whether through that legislation or another strong public option, I urge New York to create a system where losing or leaving a job does not mean losing dependable healthcare. Healthcare security would give workers more freedom to change careers, leave bad jobs, become self-employed, and create new businesses. It would also remove a significant source of stress from people who are already navigating unemployment. New York has an opportunity to show that healthcare security and economic dynamism can reinforce each other. I hope you will support legislation that moves us toward universal coverage that follows the person, not the job.