John Birkner and Gerald Falotico cite own families’ experiences in committing to healthcare access and affordability

LD-39 Challengers’ message on healthcare: “we’ve got your back”

Westwood Mayor John Birkner Jr and Emerson Council President Gerald Falotico, candidates for Assembly in New Jersey’s 39th district, today sharply criticized their opponents’ voting records on healthcare. The candidates spoke in personal terms about the healthcare challenges facing their own families and countless other families throughout the district.

“My wife Suzie is a ten year breast cancer survivor,” Birkner said. “We are grateful every day that she had access to the screenings and preventive care she needed to spot her cancer early on and deal with it before it became uncontrollable. When her insurance company told her she wasn’t eligible for an annual mammogram she fought to have it done. As a result, she was found to have early stage cancer and underwent 14 hours of surgery with over a dozen follow up procedures. God only knows what would have happened if she had to wait another year before being permitted to receive that critical diagnostic test. All women in New Jersey deserve that same level of care, which is why I find it unconscionable that Assemblymembers Auth and Schepisi have ten times refused to vote in favor of restoring critical funding for women’s healthcare access that was originally cut by Chris Christie. I will always be a reliable vote in favor of greater access to healthcare for women in New Jersey.”

Falotico adds, “My wife Sharon has a chronic medical condition that requires frequent doctor visits and prescriptions to manage. So we know firsthand the financial pain that surprise medical bills for out-of-network specialists can cause. We have also seen how insurance companies try to take advantage of families like ours by offering junk insurance plans that seem like a bargain because of their low premiums but end up costing insane amounts due to high deductibles, lifetime caps, and gaping holes in the services and drugs covered. The NJ State Assembly has taken action to shield New Jersey families from these abuses, but neither Bob Auth or Holly Schepisi has voted for those measures.”

The candidates jointly add “Ensuring that North Jersey families can access high quality health care when they need it most – without the prospect of financial ruin from exorbitant surprise bills – isn’t just our political priority, it’s also personally critical for us, just as it is for tens of thousands of other families like ours.

“Auth and Schepisi’s message to New Jersey families facing crippling medical costs seems to be ‘You’re on your own.’ Our message is ‘We’ve got your back.’”

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