{"id":5316,"date":"2012-01-11T13:52:16","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T18:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5316"},"modified":"2012-01-16T10:40:39","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T15:40:39","slug":"the-mandate-counties-like-the-least","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/01\/11\/the-mandate-counties-like-the-least\/","title":{"rendered":"The mandate counties like the least"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In a press release today, New York State’s counties put local Medicaid costs at the top of the list of worst state mandates.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

1. Apply a portion of the MRT\u00a0 savings to provide property tax relief\u2014there is ample savings going forward that can be used to support the gradual State takeover.<\/p>\n

2. Pursue a federal 1115 Medicaid waiver to leverage advanced funds from the federal government.<\/p>\n

3. Allow federal health care reforms to cover more New Yorkers\u2014In 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s<\/a> the full report.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 And the MRT agess with the counties about funding.<\/p>\n

1) Exchange: <\/strong>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 \u201coperationally ready\u201d by January 1, 2013.<\/p>\n

2) Medicaid Financing: <\/strong>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<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This comes as New York anticipates Gov. Cuomo’s 2012 budget, coming Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a press release today, New York State’s counties put local Medicaid costs at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,4803,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5318,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5316\/revisions\/5318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}