John, 

Thousands of immigrant New Yorkers on the frontlines of the pandemic don’t have access to health insurance. For a whole year, they’ve put their bodies on the line to keep our state running without any guarantee of treatment after contracting COVID-19.

The New York Legislature can and must fund temporary health coverage for undocumented frontline workers—we need your help before the budget passes! Tell your state representative to stand with immigrants on the frontlines and include A1585/S2549 in the NYS budget.

These bills provide temporary health insurance eligibility to undocumented adults who have COVID-19—offering access to critical, life-saving health services for our most vulnerable community members.   

New research finds that more than 2,700 undocumented New Yorkers, and more than 8,000 New Yorkers overall, have died from COVID-19 because they didn’t have health insurance. For uninsured New Yorkers, passing A1585/S2549 is literally a matter of life or death. 

The NYS Budget is close to being finalized—but the legislature still hasn’t carved out funding for health coverage for our immigrant essential workers. We need to act now and demand our representatives do what’s right by guaranteeing health care coverage to ALL of the heroes on the frontlines!

Thanks for fighting with us,

Murad Awawdeh 
Interim Co-Executive Director