A coalition of healthcare unions, patient advocates and community organizations gathered outside Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx on April 10 to press Gov. Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature to fund healthcare by taxing the wealthy, according to media advisories distributed by the organizers.
The rally, scheduled for 11 a.m. at the hospital at 234 E. 149th St., was anchored by three labor groups representing front-line medical workers: Doctors Council, the Committee of Interns and Residents and the New York State Nurses Association, the advisories said. Organizers described the action as a call on state lawmakers to raise revenue from high earners rather than cut health programs.
According to the organizers, the protest was framed around the potential loss of Essential Plan coverage for roughly 450,000 New Yorkers, a threat the coalition tied to the Trump administration. The Essential Plan provides low- or no-cost coverage to lower-income residents who do not qualify for Medicaid, and the coalition argued that taxing the rich would give the state the means to protect it. Independent reporting has described those 450,000 New Yorkers as currently insured at little to no cost through the heavily subsidized program, with state lawmakers and officials scrambling to respond, and THE CITY reported that coverage notices warned the plan would end by June 1.
Several elected officials were listed in the advisories as joining the unions, including Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest, State Sen. Robert Jackson and Deputy Public Advocate Elizabeth Kennedy. Those names were drawn from the organizers’ advisory; independent coverage of the rally reported a different roster of officials present.
The event was convened under a broad “Tax the Rich” banner and backed by a long roster of advocacy and labor-aligned groups, according to the advisories. Organizers listed the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which circulated the advisories, along with Invest in Our New York, PSC-CUNY, the New York Working Families Party, Make the Road New York, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, the CUNY Rising Alliance, Citizen Action of New York, the New York Caring Majority, Strong Economy for All and other coalition partners. The coalition said its members include patient advocates and New Yorkers at risk of losing their Essential Plan coverage.
