A pressure campaign is on to get New York’s Republican delegation to vote against sweeping Medicaid cuts in the House reconciliation bill.
Three of the state’s most influential health groups, 1199SEIU, the New York State Nurses Association and Planned Parenthood, descended on the south shore of Long Island for a rally in Rep. Andrew Garbarino’s district on Friday to call on him to oppose an estimated $715 billion in health cuts, mostly to Medicaid, in the House proposal. 1199SEIU, the state’s largest health care union, is planning two more rallies on Monday in Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ district in Brooklyn and Rep. Nick LaLota’s on the east end of Long Island, and held a third in Rep. Nick Langworthy’s district in Dunkirk on Tuesday.
Many of the seats being targeted are held by Republicans who have expressed opposition to the bill being pushed by Speaker Mike Johnson, largely over the concerns that the state and local salt deduction cap will harm constituents. Several represent districts Democrats will try to win in the next midterm as they zero in on the message that the Republican plan cuts services for the poor and middle class while giving tax breaks to the wealthy.
The push coincides with an analysis from the state Department of Health showing the Republican proposal would cost New York’s health care system more than $10 billion and leave 1.2 million uninsured. The analysis, reviewed by Crain’s, was not made public but was shared with some of the biggest powerbrokers in the health care sector, including 1199, Greater New York Hospital Association and the Health Plan Association of New York.
Garbarino’s district includes 283,000 Medicaid recipients, and 78,000 people on the state’s Essential Plan, according to the Health Department analysis. The House Ways & Means proposal would result in an estimated 42,000 people losing insurance in his district alone, the report shows. The district would account for approximately $440 million of the bill’s cost to the state.
The Republican bill would harm these constituents and strain the health care system when it is forced to absorb an influx of uninsured patients, the groups said on Friday, standing outside Northwell’s South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore.
Greater New York Hospital Association, the largest hospital trade group in the northeast, and the Health Plan Association, which represents New York insurance companies, also called on the state’s Congressional delegation to oppose the measure in separate statements.
GNYHA and the 1199SEIU Labor Management Initiatives, Inc. Health Care Education Project, a political advocacy and outreach entity that is organizing the rallies with the health care union, are among the top lobbying spenders in the state each year. The groups spent $3 million and $11.5 million, respectively, to influence state government last year.
Most of the Republicans being targeted have been caught between the White House and constituents already over layoffs and restructuring at the Department of Health and Human Services that disrupted the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides health care for people exposed to toxic debris in the aftermath of September 11th. After the Trump administration said the program’s longtime director would be reinstated, Garbarino, Malliotakis, LaLota, and Rep. Mike Lawler thanked the administration, calling it an “unfortunate mistake.”
