Legislature Backs Legislation Preventing State From Sharing Medicaid Costs
Before it was pulled Friday, local residents, state officials and county legislators issued their response to the Affordable Care Act repeal and a bill amendment by U.S. Reps. Chris Collins and John Faso that would have shifted the county’s Medicaid share to the state.
Proponents to the Collins amendment including U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, said the local property tax burden would be lessened. On the other side, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the American Health Care Act and the Collins amendment would have cut Medicaid for many New Yorkers while decimating the health care industry by slashing billions of dollars to the state.
At the county level, legislators unanimously backed a motion at Wednesday’s meeting that issued support for the Collins amendment. County legislator George Borrello, R-Irving, was the only one who chose to speak to the motion.
Borrello said the motion focuses on the costly state Medicaid program that grants anyone coming into New York with lucrative benefits. For counties, they’re left paying a hefty price for the state’s share of Medicaid. In Chautauqua County, the local Medicaid share is almost 50 percent of the county’s property tax levy.
“This amendment would essentially take $3.6 billion that is forced upon local municipalities through property tax and put that back where it belongs in Albany with those folks who control the size and scope of the program,” he said. “We have the largest Medicaid program in the nation even though we’re the fourth largest state. To cut what is merely 6 percent of that Medicaid budget, the largest and most bloated and inefficient Medicaid program in the nation, I think is achievable.”
Before county legislators acted on the motion, Ralph Walton took to the microphone to discuss what the Affordable Care Act repeal would do to the fight against the local opioid epidemic. Walton is a psychiatrist and former county commissioner of mental health. Walton said such a move would adversely impact Chautauqua County and the opioid crisis.
“We have many poor individuals in this county. It’s a rural county,” Walton said. “We have a higher incidence of addiction, suicide, more obesity and more smoking. To curtail services when they really need to be expanded is absolutely unconscionable.”
Speaking against the Collins amendment to county legislators, Bemus Point resident Phyllis Caloren said it’s ignorant and shortsighted. She said it would facilitate closure of hospitals and nursing homes that are struggling.
“I’m sure, and others are here to tell you, that consideration of replacement of the Affordable Care Act and the Collins’ bill are a waste of time for anyone who cares about the poor, the sick and the young,” she said.
Historically, Cuomo said Medicaid in the state was 50 percent funded by the federal government, 25 percent by the state and 25 percent by county governments. Cuomo said the Collins amendment means counties wouldn’t have to pay their share.
“If the county doesn’t pay its share, there’s another $2.3 billion cut to Medicaid on top of everything else and that means less people are going to get health care assistance,” Cuomo said. “That means more hospitals and more nursing homes are going to close. That’s what that means. There is no fairy that is going to float down and hand over $2.3 billion to make up the shortfall that the counties lack.”
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