Migrants protest outside NY Gov. Hochul's office, demanding health services 

A group of migrants gathered outside of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s offices with pots and pans demanding to be included in the state budget, which is currently being discussed in the legislature. 

"Yes we can, but Hochul doesn't want to," the migrants shouted outside the governor’s office in Manhattan while banging pots and blowing whistles. 

The state budget was scheduled to be approved on April 1, but there have been no agreements on several projects, including the “Coverage for All” bill that aims to provide undocumented migrants in New York with emergency medical access. 

Currently, undocumented adults are not eligible for public or marketplace medical coverage. However, although New York State already offers insurance for children under 19 regardless of their immigration status, the new measures would expand medical access to 255,000 migrants. 

The “Coverage for All” bill is estimated to cost the city about $1.2 million a year. However, advocates claim that the program would actually save New Yorkers an estimated $500 million annually on emergency Medicaid.  

The group of migrants, mostly from Latin America, also asked Hochul to include immigrants in a waiver that will be submitted to the federal government to request expanded health coverage for eligible New Yorkers.

"We are not going to allow that to happen again," the group said, citing the hundreds of migrants that died during the COVID-19 pandemic because they did not seek medical health, fearing the high cost of the resulting medical bills. 

"We pay taxes, we are the backbone of the state, we clean houses, we take care of children, we prepare food and deliver it, and much more, we are the essential workers, we are the 255,000 New Yorkers who because of our immigration status have been left out (of the budget). We are here to demand justice," the migrants told the governor. 

Health care coverage for undocumented migrants, similar to the ones proposed this week, already exists in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and Washington State.