What Options for Essential Plan Coverage?

After federal funding cuts, the state is raising income eligibility for the Essential Plan health insurance program, potentially excluding about 450,000 New Yorkers from the coverage. Caroline Lewis, health care reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, and Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of Health Initiatives at the Community Service Society and co-founder of the Health Care for All New York Campaign, talk about efforts to get more coverage and the options from those who have been cut.

photo: In medical office on Johnson Street, new medical district, New Orleans 22 October 2025 (Infrogmation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)