Albany Lawmakers
Pass Big Cuts in Health Care
Published: June 7, 2010 - New York Times
ALBANY — State lawmakers approved $775 million in cuts and other savings from
New York’s health care budget on Monday after Gov. David
A. Paterson inserted the reductions into emergency spending legislation
submitted to the Legislature to keep the state government from shutting down.
The cuts will affect hospitals,
nursing
homes and a lengthy list of other health-related programs, and marked the
first significant step in weeks toward an agreement on the state’s annual
budget, now more than two months overdue. The legislation also requires the
state to save an additional $300 million a year by cracking down on Medicaid
fraud, waste and abuse.
In the Senate, the emergency budget bill including the health care cuts
passed along party lines, with all 32 Democrats voting for it and all
Republicans present voting against. In the Assembly, according to the unofficial
tally, the package passed with the support of most Democrats, while some joined
Republicans in voting against it.
Because cutting the state’s health care spending means forgoing some federal
matching subsidies, the cuts are likely to have an even deeper impact than the
stated total.
The Greater New York Hospital
Association, which represents many institutions in the New York City region,
estimated that the state cuts would cost hospitals and other providers an
additional $250 million or so in federal money.
The Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, for example, would lose about $8.8 million
in federal and state subsidies, according to the association, while Jamaica
Hospital Medical Center in Queens would lose $4.5 million. Because of cuts to
graduate medical education financing, some major teaching hospitals would lose
even more: Montefiore
Medical Center in the Bronx, for example, would lose about $13.9 million.
“We feel like we have a gun to our head,” said Kenneth E. Raske, the
association’s president. “We’re on the precipice of a major disaster for the
health care community.”
Mr. Paterson and the Legislature have been unable to agree on a broader deal
to close a budget deficit of over $9 billion, largely because many Democratic
lawmakers are unwilling to make cuts as steep as those that the governor is
demanding.
Mr. Paterson appeared to have won a partial agreement by inserting a
significant portion of his health care cuts into the latest in a series of
short-term emergency spending bills, which are difficult to amend.
The cuts approved on Monday night, however, were not as expansive as the
reductions of $1 billion in health care spending Mr. Paterson had originally
sought. Some cuts, like those to tobacco cessation programs, were reduced;
others, like cuts to programs for the elderly and for prescription drug
coverage, were eliminated entirely.
Supporters of the measure in the Senate, where the vote was expected to be
closer than in the Assembly, were still busy on Monday night recruiting enough
backers to assure passage.
Mr. Paterson also did not seek the adoption of proposals that would raise
money to offset health care cuts, like higher taxes on cigarettes
and a new excise tax on sugared beverages.
Though roundly denounced by hospitals and health care workers, who staged
demonstrations inside the Capitol on Monday, the vote was not necessarily a
difficult one for lawmakers: the total dollar figure was one that the State
Senate and Assembly had already agreed to in principle during continuing
negotiations over the state budget. The package was further adjusted during
negotiations with the Senate and Assembly over the weekend, after Mr. Paterson
announced on Friday his intention to include long-term health care cuts in the
emergency bill.
Among other major provisions, the legislation cuts $72.2 million in health
care for the poor and $37.4 million in subsidies for graduate medical education.
The revised proposal also cuts $6 million in state financing for stem
cell research, a program that has been a priority for Mr. Paterson.
A separate bill that was passed with the new legislation also requires
insurance companies to obtain approval from state officials before raising
rates, a step that the industry had vigorously opposed. Lawmakers contend that
the provision will save the state $70 million a year because fewer people will
be forced off of private insurance and into public programs.
“For too long, New York families and small businesses have been faced with
the nightmare of choosing between out-of-control premiums or forgoing health
insurance,” said Senator Neil D. Breslin, an Albany Democrat who has
championed the issue. “By restoring prior approval, we will be bringing smart
and responsible regulation to the health insurance industry.”
On Monday, some lawmakers seemed relieved at Mr. Paterson’s unusual gambit,
which tied their hands — but only to make those cuts that they were prepared to
vote for anyway.
“Most of the health care budget is the Assembly budget that we passed in
March, so that’s where the governor takes most of it from,” said Sheldon Silver,
the Assembly speaker.
But more turmoil lies ahead. Mr. Paterson has signaled that he will seek to
enact further portions of his executive budget in future emergency bills, which
would inevitably include cuts to areas where Mr. Paterson and one or both houses
of the Legislature remain far apart, like school aid.