Medicaid Advocacy Continues in Full Force with Severe Cuts Looming
Our advocacy priority continues to be protecting Medicaid from harmful proposed cuts by Congress. The House of Representatives recently released its provisions for the budget reconciliation process that calls for severe cuts to Medicaid.
Simply put: $715 BILLION in cuts over a 10-year period will lead to 14 million Americans losing coverage and harmful reductions in disability services. In New York, Governor Hochul said the state would face a $13.5 billion loss in federal funding, and close to 1.5 million people could lose essential plan or Medicaid coverage.
Policy Proposals Include:
- Work and/or community engagement requirements to make people eligible for Medicaid, with very limited exceptions
- Requires six-month eligibility verification for people receiving Medicaid, creating undue burdens on people with disabilities and their families just to maintain their services
- Preventing new or increased provider taxes, limiting states’ abilities to increase rates and provide new services
- Moratorium on implementation of rules relating to eligibility and enrollment in Medicaid, which may require things like in-person visits to maintain services
- Reducing federal matching funds for states providing services to certain immigrant populations, which would include New York, potentially threatening community-based services
All told, the time is NOW to Save Medicaid.
Contact for Your Reps TODAY
The bill passed the House Budget Committee very late on May 19th and will now head to the Rules Committee. A vote in the full House is expected later this week.
The time to call is today and tomorrow. Here’s how you can reach out to your legislator:
- Use The Arc’s One-Click Tool to send a message to your representative telling them to protect Medicaid
- Find your Federal representative
- How to contact the U.S. Senator representing your state
Congress will enter a recess as early as this Friday, so reach out to your representative to schedule a meeting while they are in your home district.
NYS Budget Update
Our statewide partner at The Arc New York shared some information about the final passage of the New York State budget’s impact on disability services:
- Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature’s enacted budget contains a 2.6% targeted inflationary increase (TII), unrestricted in usage and application. This represents $144 million in investments. We have been advocating for a 7.8% Medicaid rate increase to compensate for the gap between increases and inflation over the past few years. This outcome falls short of our hopes, especially following the Governor’s original proposal of 2.1% several months ago, and the larger increases proposed in the legislative budgets.
- However, immediately before this budget cycle, the state made significant investments in nonprofit service providers through rate rebasing. Considering the 2.6% TII in conjunction with the rebasing investment, we realized an almost 15% average rate increase for our largest programs this past year.
- Additional items in the budget include a $75 million investment in the Institute for Basic Research, a $25 million investment in regional disability clinics, expanded tax credits for employing people with disabilities, and the Preferred Source Program being made permanent.
THANK YOU to everyone who called, wrote to, and/or met with their state representative this budget season. We could not have seen any additional investments without your voices. Let’s use this as momentum to keep NYS’s disability services among the most robust in the nation.
Stay Informed: Important News Items
commonwealthfund.org
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