Legislative Alert: March 1, 2024

President's Message

Invest in Medicaid Equity to Protect Access to Health Care

Medicaid is the largest source of funding for New York safety net hospitals and an important funding source for all New York hospitals. However, Medicaid currently reimburses them 30% less than the cost of delivering care. A lack of investment in Medicaid funding over the last decade has created a dramatic reimbursement gap of $6.8 billion between the cost of delivering care for Medicaid patients and the payments hospitals receive. Nursing homes face similar gaps. 

This structural underfunding contributes to unacceptable racial disparities in health outcomes, overwhelms hospitals that are already facing chronic understaffing, and puts vulnerable consumers at risk. We are now seeing more and more hospitals preparing for closure as a result - most recently in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Western New York. Nursing homes are also eliminating beds and units, leaving hospitals with limited options to discharge patients.

The Governor's budget proposal does nothing to address this gap. It exacerbates it by cutting aid to vulnerable institutions and leaving $1.25 billion in unmet needs at safety net hospitals.

Protecting access to care for New Yorkers requires investing in Medicaid equity. The State has a responsibility to raise Medicaid rates to cover the cost of caring for Medicaid recipients, eliminate cuts from this year's budget, and make significant progress toward closing the reimbursement gap at hospitals and nursing homes. 

The Governor has also proposed devastating cuts to long-term care in terms of home care worker wages and hours of care for consumers. There is a better way to address rising home care costs. Eliminating the middlemen of private insurance companies alone is projected to save the State billions of dollars annually, which could then then be reinvested in care for New Yorkers. 

Mario Cilento, President

Upcoming Meeting

LABOR LOBBYISTS MEETING 
Monday, March 4, 2024, 1:00 p.m. 
This meeting will be located at the Albany office of the NYS AFL-CIO, 
100 South Swan St. Albany, NY. Lunch will be served. 
This meeting is for labor representatives only