ALBANY — Religious leaders and health care workers descended on the state Capitol Tuesday to protest what they view as proposed cuts to essential health care programs and criticizing Democrats for reversing course on funding.
Speakers at a rally hosted by the union 1199SEIU on Tuesday framed health care as a human right, arguing that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed plan to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates by 5 percent will not be enough to reinvigorate a workforce that has been overextended since even before the pandemic.
Hochul’s budget also includes cuts to programs that provide indigent care as well as to a federal drug pricing program amid a larger shift in how the state provides coverage for drugs. The federal program provides discounts on prescription drugs for medical providers that serve New York’s neediest populations and generates extra federal funding for services and staff — especially in low-income hospitals. Medical providers have protested the changes to the federal model — known as 340B — arguing that it constitutes an essential part of its budgets.
The Rev. William Barber, a religious leader and activist, attended Wednesday’s event virtually and asserted that the proposed increase, as measures like a higher minimum wage are stalling, would backtrack on the promise of affordable health care. He added that thousands of people remain uninsured and were unable to find quality medical service during the recent pandemic.
Nearly 8 million New Yorkers are enrolled in Medicaid.
The Senate’s one-house budget released earlier this month rebuked Hochul’s proposed plan to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates by 5 percent, saying that the amount was insufficient and that her plan would ultimately result in a net cost cut to medical providers. Part of its counteroffer is to raise Medicaid rates by 10 percent, a proposal advocates back.
The rally follows weeks of organizing from the health care union, including a rally in Albany’s MVP Arena in late March that thousands of workers attended. Many workers spoke about worsening job conditions; their salaries do not adequately match the services they are required to provide, workers said.
The Rev. E West McNeill, executive director of the Labor Religion Coalition, also pointed to promised raises for home health care workers last year that they said have not materialized.
Many home care workers are again calling for an increase well above the minimum wage.
McNeill tied the issue to another ongoing fight in Albany: a tax on the richest New Yorkers, which proponents have said would generate enough money for social services. Dissenters, including Republicans in the Legislature, have argued the move would alienate the wealthiest taxpayers, with millionaires accounting for nearly 50 percent of New York’s income taxes but leaving the state in droves.
“New York does not have a problem of scarcity, New York has a problem of greed,” McNeill said. “We hear a lot of hand wringing and questioning whether we can afford to do things like guarantee health care … and the safety net in this state has been eroded and eroded.”
Hospital associations and nursing home groups have called for reimbursement rates much higher than has been proposed by either the executive chamber or the Legislature, arguing that post-pandemic staffing shortfalls and other financial woes have left them on shaky ground.
