One of the more contentious elements in Gov. Hochul’s proposed state budget this year was her plan to cut $1.2 billion in Medicaid spending. Medicaid spending was a major segment of the $233 billion 2024 budget proposed by Hochul and even with the proposed cut came in at about $35 billion, up about 11% from the previous budget. While the final budget that was being negotiated by the governor and the legislature originally was due April 1, Hochul and the legislature agreed to keep working on it until at least April 4.
Critics of the Medicaid cut had been anything but silent, with the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East union being among the most vocal and an organizer protests in Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo and Albany, among other communities. Health care workers from hospitals, nursing homes, home care, and community-based settings joined Medicaid patients in the demonstrations.
The Yonkers City Council let its voice be heard when it unanimously passed a resolution at its March 26 meeting opposing Hochul’s proposed cut.
“Reduced Medicaid funding would further compromise the health case system’s strained ability to recruit and retain staff and to provide needed services, which has already contributed to multiple recent and anticipated hospital closures, including Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Eastern Niagara, OBH Kingsbrook and State University of New York (SUNY), with additional hospitals, nursing homes and community-based service organizations facing a similar fate,” the City Council said. “New Yorkers who rely on Medicaid for their health insurance include an estimated two-thirds of New York’s seniors and one-half of the state’s children and persons with disabilities.”
The City Council said that the state really doesn’t have to cut Medicaid funding since it is sitting on a $40 billion reserve fund and is anticipating receiving $8 billion in new federal funding that would be designated for health care.
Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy, as sponsor of the resolution, prepared a memorandum discussing the issues. She stated that New York’s Medicaid program already is underfunded by an estimated 30%.
“Given the importance of its Medicaid program for so many New Yorkers, rather than cutting budgeted Medicaid funding by approximately $1.2 billion, the state should instead focus on a plan to end the Medicaid funding gap and fully fund care for the mot vulnerable New Yorkers (including seniors, children, persons with disabilities, and residents in low-income communities),” Collins-Bellamy wrote.
