Statewide Healthcare and Advocacy Organizations Call on Congressional Members to Protect Medicaid
The undersigned statewide organizations are deeply concerned about looming threats to New Yorkers’ access to healthcare. We represent consumers, frontline caregivers, providers, insurers, business, and local government. While we disagree on many issues, we are united in our concern about how deep Medicaid cuts will harm New Yorkers.
Instead of considering such cuts, we urge you to protect, preserve, and strengthen Medicaid. The program is a foundational source of health and economic security for nearly 7 million New Yorkers, and a key funding pillar for the hospitals, clinics, community health centers, and long-term care facilities and supports on which we all rely, especially as we age.
Medicaid’s importance cannot be overstated. In New York, it provides insurance for four in nine children and covers nearly 50 percent of all births, allowing mothers to deliver safely and children to have a healthy start to life. Medicaid is the single most important source of financial support that keeps rural and safety net hospitals open to serve their communities and nursing home beds available to those with longterm care needs. It ensures people with disabilities can access critical home- and community-based services and secure meaningful job opportunities. Medicaid is the largest payer of behavioral health services, providing essential access to mental health and substance use disorder care. And it helps working people stay healthy so they can afford to feed their families and send their kids to school.
New York voters strongly support this critical health service. According to a recent poll, strong majorities in every area of the state—across racial lines and political affiliation and in cities, suburbs and rural areas—see Medicaid as an important program for New Yorkers. A full 84% oppose cuts to Medicaid, including 92% of upstate rural residents, 87% in New York City, and 78% of those in the New York City suburbs.
Cutting Medicaid would shift costs and administrative burdens onto working class families, our state and local government, and health care providers. Proposals to cap funding, reduce the federal share of Medicaid spending, establish block grants, and cut state revenue from provider taxes will dramatically reduce the amount of Federal dollars supporting New Yorkers, even as our state already sends more in Federal taxes than we receive back in spending. Imposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients will not increase employment levels—most working-age and able recipients are already employed—but it will create bureaucratic hurdles that will result in people losing access to insurance and care.
If these Medicaid proposals are instituted, New Yorkers will lose access to lifesaving services, the State will face huge deficits, and hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and community health centers will be forced to cut staff and scale back services. Some may even close. In addition, services that allow seniors and people with disabilities to live independently at home will be cut or eliminated. Our state’s families and
workers will be unable to afford essential care and get sicker. That loss in productivity will harm the economy as a result.
Seven million New Yorkers—low-wage workers, seniors, people with disabilities, pregnant women, children, people with chronic illness, small business owners—are counting on you to protect and strengthen Medicaid. We urge you to advocate for them and ensure that proposals to dramatically reduce Medicaid funding are not included in this year’s budget reconciliation process.
Sincerely,
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East
Greater New York Hospital Association
Center for Elder Law & Justice
Civil Service Employees Association
Coalition for Asian American Children and Families
Coalition of New York State Public Health Plans
Community Health Care Association of New York State
Community Service Society of NY
CWA District 1
Empire Missionary Baptist Convention
Greater New York Health Facilities Association
Health Care For All New York
Healthcare Association of New York State
Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice
Leading Age New York
Medicaid Matters New York
Medical Society of the State of New York
New York Disability Advocates (NYDA)
New York State AFL-CIO
New York State Association of Health Care Providers (HCP)
New York State Catholic Conference
New York State Health Facilities Association
New York State Nurses Association
New York State Public Employees Federation
New York State United Teachers
NY Health Plan Association
NYS Labor-Religion Coalition
The Arc New York
The Business Council of New York State, Inc.
The Rabbinical Alliance of America
United Way of New York State