ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers are at loggerheads over his proposed restructuring of the state’s Medicaid program, which critics charge would cut hospitals as coronavirus rages and cost New York City at least $1.6 billion.
��It is still one of the things that’s being discussed at the table and we’re fighting [Cuomo] on this issue,” said state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), who chairs the chamber’s committee on health. “It seems like they’re making up numbers.”
Cuomo acknowledged during a Tuesday briefing he is still working with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx) and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) to hammer out a deal, but did not specifically address the Medicaid fight.
The deadline to pass the state’s budget by 12 a.m. Wednesday came and went — with no resolution over the Medicaid fight or other key issues, including bail reform and school spending.
State lawmakers are expected to reconvene on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
The legislative session opened in January with lawmakers facing a $6 billion deficit — $4 billion of which was linked back to Medicaid, the state’s health insurance program for the poor.
That was before the COVID-19 outbreak torpedoed the Empire State’s economy, causing tax revenues to drop by as much as $15 billion.
The twin crises could leave the state with a $20 billion hole.
Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly and Senate are pushing back against Cuomo’s two proposals to cut Medicaid spending — shifting costs to local governments and trimming benefits and hospital funding.
Local governments, including New York City, and liberal lawmakers have fiercely opposed both proposals — and say they will make the Empire State ineligible for $6.7 billion in federal aid negotiated by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York).
The city’s Independent Budget Office offered a withering assessment of Gov. Cuomo’s claim that local governments should share a greater burden of Medicaid’s costs since they have little power to actually reduce spending.
“It is not clear how much control city officials have over these costs, particularly for managed long-term care, which has been the main driver of New York City Medicaid claims growth in recent years,” the IBO determined in a little-noticed study released last week.
“Rules governing Medicaid eligibility, benefits, program design, and reimbursement— beyond those fixed by the federal government — are determined by the state.”
And in New York City, a company hired by the state — Maximus — even approves most of the applications for long-term care.
It concludes that “even with more ‘skin in the game,’ the city is limited in its ability to slow increases in the cost of managed long-term care, which has been the primary driver of New York City Medicaid cost increases in recent years.”
City Hall estimates the Medicaid changes would cost New York $1.6 billion in the first two years alone.
There is also a pitched fight over recommendations from the panel Cuomo tasked with identifying $2.5 billion in Medicaid cuts, saying they’ll hit city hospitals hard amid the pandemic and make the Empire State ineligible for $6 billion in federal relief.
One of the panel’s recommendations to change to how the state pays the city’s public hospital system for services could cut its Medicaid funding by $186 million a year.
“This is cruel and inhumane and we will not accept a budget that includes these cuts,” tweeted state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) about the $38 million in cuts to hospitals in central Kings County.
Cuomo’s office declined to comment Tuesday, but pointed The Post to the governor’s Monday remarks on the fight over the Medicaid changes.
“Two-and-a-half billion, per year recurring, is worth more than $6 billion one shot,” Cuomo told reporters. “I would rather have 2.5, 2.5, 2.5, than $6 billion today.”