Members of the New York Republican Congressional delegation, including Representatives John Faso (NY-19), Elise Stefanik (NY-21), Claudia Tenney (NY-22), Tom Reed (NY-23), and Chris Collins (NY-27) responded today to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid-spending proposal.
New York State has one of the most expensive Medicaid programs in the country. This is because state government is not required to pay the full cost of the entitlement program, instead raising revenue from county taxpayers to subsidize additional Medicaid spending. Nationally, local governments pay an estimated $9 billion to subsidize Medicaid expenses; $7.2 billion of that total is paid by New York City and the 57 county governments in the state.
“After hearing from local taxpayers and county leaders, Gov. Cuomo and New York Democrats are finally getting it. Average New York property taxpayers cannot afford to pay Albany’s Medicaid bill. Skyrocketing property taxes are forcing people out of our state and we need to provide relief, which is why I will be introducing legislation to end this 51-year-old practice once and for all,” said Congressman John Faso.
“While I’m glad they’ve temporarily walked back their flamboyant ‘death trap’ tantrum, it’s on Mr. Cuomo and state legislators to end the Medicaid mandate. Governor Cuomo will spend billions of dollars on corporate welfare in his budget and millions more on self-serving television commercials. If he cannot, by 2020, spare 1.5 percent to cover his state government’s share of Medicaid costs, it will be remembered as another broken promise to Upstate New York,” continued Faso.
“New York’s Medicaid mandate is a serious problem for counties and taxpayers across my district,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “New York State currently raises $7 billion from its local governments to fund its $27 billion Medicaid liability, which is the largest amount in the nation. Gov. Cuomo should push the state to take these burdensome requirements off our county governments and work to make Albany accountable for their own budgeting. I will continue to work with my colleagues in the New York delegation on behalf of the constituents of our great state.”
To put this in perspective, Florida (20.7 million residents) and Texas (27.9 million residents) have more than double the population of New York state (19.7 million residents). However, their combined Medicaid costs total less than New York’s. Annually Florida spends $21 billion, Texas spends $36 billion and New York spends at least $60 billion.
“Skyrocketing Medicaid costs have plagued New York State taxpayers for decades as Medicaid consumes $65 billion of New York’s $152 billion FY2017-18 budget,” said Congresswoman Claudia Tenney. “Gov. Cuomo has paid lip service to this critical issue that is burdening New York taxpayers by creating a Medicaid Redesign Team in his first term and numerous other commissions which produced zero reforms, and little more than an annual sound bite for the Governor.
“Now, Gov. Cuomo and New York Democrats have reversed course in a retaliatory move against the taxpayers in attempting to force the Federal Government to further fund the state’s bloated Medicaid spending.
“Instead, Governor Cuomo and the state legislature should be enacting real reform by cutting wasteful, out-of-control spending and protecting the beleaguered taxpayers of New York who pay among the highest taxes in the nation,” said Congresswoman Claudia Tenney.
“I care about lowering property taxes to help seniors and hardworking families across New York,” said Congressman Tom Reed. “Albany needs to take the local share of Medicaid off the backs of hardworking taxpayers once and for all by reining in the Medicaid industrial complex Albany has created.”
“Although late to the party, I am glad Governor Cuomo has finally seen how unsustainable it is to force hardworking property taxpayers to subsidize New York’s out of control Medicaid program,” said Congressman Chris Collins. “Unfortunately, instead of reviewing his own bloated budget for the 1.5 percent needed, the out-of-touch Governor demands more federal government for the nation’s most bloated Medicaid program. The Governor needs to quit living a federally funded fairy tale and find savings in New York’s Medicaid program which costs 44% more per recipient than the national average, and spends more than those of Texas and Florida combined.”
As a resident of Oneida county, where our county share of medicaid spending amounts to 81% of our property tax revenue, I understand the frustration with the way Albany is funding medicaid. However, it is important to realize that the republicans that are attacking the way that medicaid revenue is raised in New York are simultaneously attempting to undermine the medicaid “entitlement”. Notice, for example, Claudia Tenney’s language when she refers to medicaid as “bloated” and Tom Reed’s referral to reducing life-saving preventative care for low-income Americans by “reining in the Medicaid industrial complex.”
There is a better solution. New York state is currently just two senate votes away from passing universal health care, bill S.4840, that would be funded by payroll and non-earned income. This would take profit, the real “waste” and “bloat” out of system, saving New York, and “hard working” families billions.
Wow. I never use Medicaid and I hope to never have to. However, my neighbors and their children rely on it. I would never turn my back on my neighbor, especially in a time of need. Medicaid expansion helps insure that low income folks (people like me and you, human beings) get help paying their medical bills. This financially helps hospitals. Which in turn keeps taxpayers from having to step up to bolster hospitals. Medicaid expansion helps keep more people healthy which is good for all of us (ahem, flu season in NY?) Here is a NYTimes article detailing just how and why. https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/how-medicaid-expansion-helps-hospitals/
EVEN MANY REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS APPRECIATE IT. Here is an article where “Governor Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) – a member of the incoming Trump administration – called Medicaid expansion “a win for the people of Iowa” when he signed Medicaid expansion into law in 2013. Governor Brian Sandoval (R-Nevada) has said Medicaid expansion is one of the best things to happen to the state, according to Governor Matt Mead of Wyoming (R), another supporter of expansion.” http://familiesusa.org/blog/2017/01/their-own-words-republican-governors-support-medicaid-expansion
So, NYS spends more on Medicaid than FL and TX combined?
Could that be because NY actually provides Medicaid for ALL who need it and not just the poorest of the poor getting bare bones coverage? The deliberately arrogant ignorance of the Republican Congressional delegation is maddening.
Earlier in my career (mid 90s) I did a stint as an admissions counselor for a private psych hospital in MA. It was my job to conduct the initial evaluation and then secure insurance payment for the patient.
In a year, I had cataloged well over 250 DIFFERENT insurance plans/companies, each with their own CEO, CFO, VPs, Boards of Directors, advertising budgets … and rules (games) designed to deny as much coverage as possible.
How can anyone keep a straight face and claim we do better with “market based solutions” with hundreds of insurers all needing to spend millions to support the same infrastructures AND profit motives?
ONE system. ONE hierarchy. NON-profit.
Yes, of course, there would need to be robust oversight – humans would be involved, after all – but in one fell swoop MILLIONS of dollars saved, able to be used to PROVIDE health care and the motivation for existence changed from making money to keeping people well.
ALL of the rest of the developed world has done it.
WHY is that such a hard sell in the US?