Democrats propose a Medicaid counteroffer
Albany -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo and members of New York's Democratic Congressional delegation are attempting to counter recent Republican efforts to compel New York State to absorb the full portion of Medicaid costs currently covered by counties.
The GOP proposal was offered up as an amendment to the recently scuttled American Health Care Act by Rep. Chris Collins of Buffalo and John Faso of Kinderhook, who sold it as a way to bring about sorely needed property tax relief around the state.
On the conference call, Cuomo echoed last week's fiery rhetoric by calling the Collins-Faso proposal "a scam" and "a fraud" that would force the state to raise the funds, estimated at $2.3 billion, through the income tax. The amendment's Republican authors scoffed at that notion, and suggested that the shortfall could be made up through belt-tightening by Cuomo and the state Legislature.
The Democratic counterproposal, dubbed the Empire State Equity Act, would hand New York an additional $2.3 billion in federal Medicaid matching funds (a 4 percent boost).
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Democrats-propose-a-Medicaid-counteroffer-11040337.php
