Gov. Cuomo blasts feds cutting $8B Medicare grant for NY

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has blasted the Trump administration for canceling an $8 billion health care grant that had been awarded to New York state in 2014.

The grant was part of the Delivery System Reform Incentive Program. DSRIP’s purpose is to fundamentally restructure the health care delivery system by reinvesting in the Medicaid program, with the primary goal of reducing avoidable hospital use by 25% over 5 years.

The Westchester Medical Center was scheduled to receive $31,054,057 in funding from the latest round. Montefiore Medical Center-Hudson Valley Collaborative PPS was to receive $14,469,921.

Cuomo said that the funding cut is the latest in a series of moves designed to hurt New York state. He said the motive was simple: New York is a blue, Democrat-voting state and the administration wants to hurt blue states and help red states where Republicans dominate.

Cuomo cited the administration”™s action to exclude New Yorkers from participating in the Trusted Traveler Program, which helps speed travelers through security checkpoints at airports. He said what they have done amounts to holding 200,000 New York travelers hostage.

Cuomo told a Feb. 24 news conference in Albany, “Why does President Trump say I am moving from New York to Florida? Because Florida is in play politically and New York isn’t, and now he can say I am a Floridian. Vote for me for president, I am a Florida resident. I’ll be good for you.”

Cuomo said why they would want to play politics with someone’s health care is just beyond him.

“They have no limits whatsoever,” he said. Cuomo said the loss of $600 million a year would be devastating for the state”™s hospital system.

“I have never seen politics top this extreme. I have never seen government run through a self-serving political lens like this. But that is what it is. My point is that at one point it has to stop. And the line in the sand has to be healthcare,” he said.