The mandate counties like the least
In a press release today, New York State’s counties put local Medicaid costs at the top of the list of worst state mandates.
NYSAC, the state association of counties, says the total cost to county property taxpayers is over $7 billion, and now they say they’ve figured a way out from under that “identifies the ways and means to fund a State takeover of county costs.”
1. Apply a portion of the MRT savings to provide property tax relief—there is ample savings going forward that can be used to support the gradual State takeover.
2. Pursue a federal 1115 Medicaid waiver to leverage advanced funds from the federal government.
3. Allow federal health care reforms to cover more New Yorkers—In his State of the State Address, Governor Cuomo has stated that the Affordable Care Act will result in $18 billion in new federal resources to New York State over the next several years.
Here’s the full report.
MRT refers to the Medicaid Reform Task Force Gov. Cuomo put to work on how New York could spend less and get as much, or more, from the big federal program. Its recommendations came out in October. The full report is a little dense to post here, at 15 pages, but a key recommendation includes an insurance exchange in New York as outlined the federal health care act. And the MRT agess with the counties about funding.
1) Exchange: New York should establish its own Exchange to best meet the needs of its residents and small businesses. We urge the State to enact authorizing legislation establishing a New York Health Benefits Exchange to allow the State to be deemed “operationally ready” by January 1, 2013.
2) Medicaid Financing: The State should develop and implement a plan for more sustainable Medicaid financing that phases out reliance on local taxes (e.g., property taxes) and includes the examination of financing structures in other states. 1
This comes as New York anticipates Gov. Cuomo’s 2012 budget, coming Tuesday.
Monday in our studios, Cuomo’s deputy secretary of state, Dede Scozzafava, indicated that Medicaid funding reform would be rolled into a package to be prepared by the governor’s other task force, charged with mandate relief in general. NYSAC’s president, Greg Edwards of Chatauqua County, says they don’t want to wait:
County taxpayers should not have to wait for another mandate relief task force to develop a series of recommendations. We have advanced a workable plan that benefits State taxpayers, county taxpayers, providers and patients; and we ask the Governor for his favorable consideration in the Executive Budget.
I agree with Mr. Edwards, we waste too much time with the use of “task forces.” If there’s already been a practical plan developed, why not try it? Or will the lobbyists be too upset and threatened by such action?
3. Allow federal health care reforms to cover more New Yorkers
Kick the can over in our neighbor’s yard. Eventually, our neighbors will be out of money. Then we can pass the costs off on “world health reform”.
In the end though you have to reduce the core cost of medicaid. NYS has higher medicaid costs than most other states the reason for that need to be understood.
Jdm why don’t you just move out of Ny if it is so terrible?
All mandates should be fully funded through the state and federal income taxes, not the property tax.
zeke: “Jdm why don’t you just move out of Ny if it is so terrible?”
How about we move Cuomo out? NY is a pretty nice place to live if we could get some decent leaders to run it.
JDM, you really think NY State is going to elect a hard-right conservative Republican some time soon? And would anything less really satisfy you?
JDM, you really think NY State is going to elect a hard-right conservative Republican some time soon?
No. After we get really fed up with the way the liberals mess things up – maybe.
And would anything less really satisfy you? Low taxes and freedom are high on my list of being satisfied.
Gee, since we haven’t had a Republican Governor in fourteen years now, and statewide 59.1% of registered voters are Democrats, I guess liberals aren’t messing things up too badly according to most of your fellow citizens.
Dooesn’t anyone ever put one and one together anymore? Gov. A. Cuomo and our tenured legislators just raised taxes last spring and again this fall. Was any of this new revenue budgeted for reform of Medicaid financing? Of course not. Reforming Medicaid doesn’t buy you votes.
Instead, our very popular governor set a few dollars aside for regional development funding. He set up a competition for the funds (Our tax dollars) and then doled them out just a couple of weeks ago. If I remember, the North Country received a few million and even NCPR reporters jumped for joy. Why one of his assistants, Ms. Scozzafava (sp?), was just traveling around collecting bouquerts of praise in the NCPR area.
Now that’s how you buy votes. Reforming Medicaid earns politicos nothing so it won’t happen. Form a committee …
Walker: “I guess liberals aren’t messing things up too badly”
Pretty soon, we’ll start running out of other people’s money.
That’s the lifeblood of liberalism.
“we’ll start running out of other people’s money”
Nice talking point, but it’s bogus. Did we run out of other people’s money during the fifties, when we were building the Interstate Highway System AND dealing with the debt from World War II?
It’s the One Percenters who are going to run out of “other people’s money” if they keep rigging the system so they get all the goodies without having to pay their fair share. They’ve already grabbed so much of the pie that the pie is starting to shrink. It’s not taxes that are killing us, it’s obscene profits, obscene CEO salaries, and obscene tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations.
Walker: “It’s not taxes that are killing us, it’s obscene profits, obscene CEO salaries, and obscene tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations.”
Fine. No one is forcing you to smoke, put gas in your car, eat at McDonalds, or shop at Walmart. If you do these things voluntarily, you are the problem. Stop doing them.
On the other hand, I never volunteer my tax money. Unfortunately, it’s not voluntary.
JDM, as it happens, I put fewer than 5,000 miles per year on my 14 year old Honda Civic, never eat and McDonalds, and haven’t set foot in a Walmarts in over two years. I don’t mind paying taxes at all– it’s the price of civilization.
I think they could look at significantly reducing what medicaid covers while holding steady on the number of people covered and expand family and child healthy plus. Other states do not cover all of the things that we cover in NYS it is one reason why we pay more. People on medicaid should not have better insurance than those who scrape by on private insurance. How many people have full dental coverage for example?
I used the medicaid screening tool to determine if a fictitious version of me and my wife would qualify for medicaid. I said we had a pre-deduction income of $15,000. Sorry, says medicaid, you make too much money.
https://apps.nyhealth.gov/doh2/applinks/accessny/elgibility/gettingstarted.jsp?DOHTOKEN=TXOM-SSQA-L1JR-WL0B-5HM9-XGD3-FSDI-5O78
That’s pretty incredible! How does one live on $15,000 a year?
Coincidentally, my wife’s health insurance costs $16,787 per year.
Correct to qualify for medicaid you can make practically nothing, the amazing thing is how many people in SLC DO qualify for medicaid.
However family health plus and child health plus are more reasonable they are done on a sliding scale, so you can pay more into the program if you make more and less if you make less. I think this program should be expanded so any NYS resident could take advantage of it.