Assembly Bill A8642

2025-2026 Legislative Session

Enacts the "NYS health care tax reform act"

download bill text pdf

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Current Bill Status - In Assembly Committee


  • Introduced
    • In Committee Assembly
    • In Committee Senate
    • On Floor Calendar Assembly
    • On Floor Calendar Senate
    • Passed Assembly
    • Passed Senate
  • Delivered to Governor
  • Signed By Governor

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2025-A8642 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Senate Version of this Bill:
S8157
Current Committee:
Assembly Health
Law Section:
Public Health Law
Laws Affected:
Amd §§2807-j & 2807-s, Pub Health L; add §§1510-a, 220 & 866-a, amd §658, Tax L; amd §92-dd, St Fin L

2025-A8642 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Enacts the "NYS health care tax reform act"; establishes a public goods surcharge on insurance corporations; establishes a public goods surcharge on business corporations; establishes a public goods surcharge on pass-through entities

2025-A8642 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                             
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   8642
 
                        2025-2026 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               May 22, 2025
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by M. of A. HEVESI -- read once and referred to the Committee
   on Health
 
 AN ACT to amend the public health law, the tax law and the state finance
   law, in relation to enacting the "NYS health care tax reform act"
 
   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may  be  cited  as
 the "NYS health care tax reform act".
   § 2. Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds that:
   The  affordability  of  health  care and health insurance is extremely
 important in ensuring that the maximum number of New  York  state  resi-
 dents can obtain high quality affordable health care.
   Health  care  and  health  insurance  are currently subject to several
 taxes that directly and indirectly increase the cost of health insurance
 coverage, including an annual flat tax on all privately  insured  people
 in  New York state called the covered lives assessment and a 9.63% sales
 tax surcharge on certain hospital based health services (HCRA taxes).
   Collectively, the taxes on health care, health  insurance,  and  other
 taxes  were  budgeted at $6.5 billion in the FY 2025 state budget. These
 taxes are now the fourth largest revenue source  for  the  state  behind
 only  the  personal income, sales, and broad-based business taxes. These
 taxes have been increased fourteen times  since  the  program  began  in
 1997.  The  program  is  now  far  larger and is used for purposes never
 originally contemplated when first enacted.
   The taxes on  health  care  and  health  insurance  are  fundamentally
 regressive  taxes because the taxes are unrelated to a consumer's wealth
 or ability to pay, directly impact hospitalization costs at a time  when
 consumers  are  facing  some  of  their greatest health care challenges,
 directly increase the cost of health insurance, and  are  counterproduc-
 tive  to  the  public  policy  objective  of  making health insurance as
 affordable as possible. Even worse, these taxes are levied in a horribly

  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD13012-02-5
              

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