We can't afford Republican health care cuts. | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdBIH4hdpKQ

 

Oct 14, 2025

Due to the Trump health care cuts, the New York Essential Plan is set to be eliminated next year - all while Republicans refuse to call the House back into session during a shutdown to avoid negotiating on health care. That won’t stop us. This week, I spent some time in Castle Hill going through some of our resident’s health care bills to better figure out how we can fight back as we continue the fight for Medicare For All.

Transcript

 

 

0:00

Hey everyone, it's Rep AOC. I'm out here

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at Stevenson Commons in the Bronx. And

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one of the reasons why I'm here is

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because while the government is shut

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down, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

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has refused to call the House back into

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session. And so if he doesn't want us in

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Washington DC, I'm going to make sure

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that we're doing our work here. I'm

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going to visit someone in our community.

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Her name is Magros. And Magros relies on

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an essential plan which is one of the

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key health care programs that are going

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to be eliminated due to the Republican

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changes in Medicaid and the ACA and

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healthcare overall.

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So I'm taking Mono and I'm taking jarins

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and I'm taking metformin.

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These are very expensive medications and

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you're telling me that you started

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skipping doses.

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Skipping do even though I told my doctor

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because I was on it. He said don't do

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that. You're going to kill yourself. And

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so these are all your medicines that you

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can take.

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High blood pressure, diabetes. Without

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the insurance, it's going to be a lot a

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lot of money.

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So all of this every month cost you

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about $20.

1:00

Yes.

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Because of the essential plan that you

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have right now.

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Yes. Yes.

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And now because of these Republican

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changes,

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it's going to be eliminated.

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And I can't even imagine how much all of

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this is without that.

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It's a couple of thousands. Couple of

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thousands. So, you're going to go from

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paying $20 a month to potentially paying

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over.

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I'm not going to be able to pay. I got

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to get me three different jobs.

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I mean, more than that.

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Yeah.

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Your health insurance is getting

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eliminated because of these Republican

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changes. And so, you in anticipation of

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that, you are stretching out your

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medicine.

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Not only do we pay for medication, we

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also have to pay our bills.

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And the con bills are going up.

1:38

Exactly. What I hear from a lot of my

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Republican colleagues is if you're

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already on Medicaid or if you're already

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on a plan like this, you have nothing to

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worry about. They're saying we're only

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going after fraudulent people. But

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Magros,

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that's not what I see. That's not what I

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see every day in

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you are working. You also have

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significant medical conditions. We

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cannot allow health care, medicine to

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become a luxury good. And I pray for God

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to to just keep fighting for us, to give

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you help and everything, okay? Thank you

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so much cuz you do a lot for us. She

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advocating for our plans, medical

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coverage

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[Music]