Public Employee Press

Political Action 2005
Coalition battles new Medicaid cuts

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Facing more than $275 million in Medicaid cuts from Gov. George E. Pataki, a powerful alliance of health care activists and unions is fighting back.

The coalition — including DC 37, the Municipal Labor Committee and the advocacy group Medicaid Matters New York — is preparing to launch a massive campaign against the governor’s proposed budget cuts.

“We will do everything in our power to protect our hospitals, which have done an outstanding job of providing health care for the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.

In addition to the governor’s planned cuts, President George W. Bush proposed a budget in early February that would substantially reduce Medicaid funding as well as other social programs, such as food stamps.

Bush is also planning major Medicaid changes that would harm recipients and severely limit funds to New York.

One of the president’s proposals would dramatically expand individual medical spending accounts and force employees to pay federal taxes on the value of their employer-paid health insurance.

Under New York State law, the city Health and Hospitals Corp. must provide health-care services to poor and uninsured New Yorkers regardless of their ability to pay.

But if the governor’s executive budget were to pass, entire categories of services under the Family Health Plus program would be eliminated. These services include dental, vision, podiatry, inpatient and outpatient mental health, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, and speech and hearing. Bellevue Hospital Center alone would lose at least $21.5 million.

The citywide campaign to stop the cuts will shift into high gear during Medicaid Week, March 7-11, with petition tables to be set up at HHC facilities all around the city and two massive lobbying efforts.

The coalition will hold a lobby day in Albany on March 8 in an effort to persuade state lawmakers to reject Pataki’s plan and another such effort in New York City on March 11 at Bellevue.

“We have to alert people to the possibility of jobs and services being lost and possibly hospitals being closed,” said Ralph Palladino, vice president of Local 1549.