Republicans and Democrats are playing an expensive game of political tennis with your money.

A couple of weeks ago, Republicans trying to rally support for President Donald Trump’s health care bill offered New York Republicans a deal by which the burden of paying for Medicaid would have been removed from counties in New York and placed entirely on the state government. The plan died when the health care bill was pulled without a vote, but prompted a response last week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who suggested the federal government give New York state an additional $2.3 billion a year in FMAP aid to pay for Medicaid. Then, the state would remove the requirement that counties pay part of the share of the Medicaid program.

We don’t believe for a second that Democrats or Republicans actually want to change the status quo because no one wants to pay for Medicaid. That’s unfortunate. Chautauqua County taxpayers could see their taxes decrease an average of roughly $360 a year if counties no longer had to pay the tab for Medicaid.

Discussions over who pays for Medicaid have been going on for years. Counties feel it is unfair they have to pay since New York is one of only three states that require counties to pay part of Medicaid’s cost. Local taxpayers are hurt by an unfair system that places the burden of an expensive Medicaid system on local taxpayers who have no say in how the program is designed. Local legislatures can’t decide who and what is covered by Medicaid. They can’t tweak the program because costs are too high. Those decisions are made by other levels of government.

Medicaid is a burden that should be paid by those who decide who is covered and to what extent. It is time for Congressional Republicans and Democrats to come together to figure out a way to better divide the cost between the federal and state governments and to stop playing games with your hard-earned money.