HEALTH CARE
Healthcare is a human right, not a privilege for those who can pay.
New Yorkers are being failed by the current healthcare system, which prioritizes profits over patients. With out of pocket costs soaring, families have been forced to forego necessary medication or treatment.
Omar believes that healthcare is a human right, and that no New Yorker should have to choose between quality medical care and financial security or be forced to take on massive debts just to take care of their own health.
In Albany, Omar will back bills that guarantee comprehensive, high-quality healthcare for all New Yorkers, like the New York Health Act. He will fight to make this bill the law, ensuring the elimination of co-pays, deductibles, and prescription costs, and removing barriers to healthcare access that disproportionately impact working-class New Yorkers.
Our current healthcare system is squeezing tens of thousands of hardworking New Yorkers in South Brooklyn and Staten Island with its high costs, confusing coverage, and constant barriers to care.
On average, New York has the highest single coverage healthcare cost in the country, at an eye-watering $9,589. Family coverage is nearly three times higher, averaging over $27,000 annually. Private healthcare corporations make billions of dollars in profits every year, while denying lifesaving care to the very people who line their pockets.
As a former EMT in Staten Island and South Brooklyn, Omar has seen the care needs of this community firsthand. He's taken care of New Yorkers at their most vulnerable and knows that in times of crisis, the last thing patients should need to worry about is how they will pay for their medical treatment.
No one should need to go without essential healthcare because an insurance company denied a claim or a doctor is "out of network."
It's time that we stop letting insurance companies determine our health outcomes instead of trained medical professionals. That's why Omar will fight to pass the New York Health Act, a bill which will create a single-payer, universal healthcare system for all New Yorkers, regardless of income level.