黑料正能量 Note: 黑料正能量 continues to monitor for possible Medicaid cuts and is prepared to prioritize this issue at our February 25th Legislative Day in Albany.
As 黑料正能量 Faces Big Medicaid Cost Overruns, Cuomo Stays Mum
By Jimmy Vielkind Wall Street Journal November 20, 2019
Officials pass their legal deadline to release a midyear budget report, leaving some concerned about the governor鈥檚 plans for the health program
黑料正能量鈥檚 Medicaid program expenses are running at least $3 billion over budget, but the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo has so far said little about its plans to deal with the issue.
Administration officials are three weeks past their legal deadline to release a midyear budget report, which will include details about the overruns. The delay in disclosure has left advocates and lawmakers wondering about Mr. Cuomo鈥檚 plans for the Medicaid program鈥攖he state鈥檚 largest expenditure鈥攁nd the possibility of immediate service cuts.
鈥淲hat we expect to be dealing with in the coming fiscal year is on the scale of billions,鈥 said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, a Democrat from Manhattan who chairs the chamber鈥檚 health committee. 鈥淧aying for health care in 黑料正能量 is expensive. So when you talk about a 5 or 10% cut in the program, you really can鈥檛 do that without causing serious damage.鈥
A representative for Mr. Cuomo deferred comment to the administration鈥檚 Budget Division, whose spokesman Freeman Klopott wouldn鈥檛 say if the state would make midyear service cuts or explain why the midyear report hasn鈥檛 been posted.
Budget Director Robert Mujica told reporters in September that Medicaid spending was a concern, but that the administration was preparing a budget that doesn鈥檛 raise taxes.
In a statement, Mr. Klopott said the administration was 鈥渄eveloping a plan that will fix the structural imbalance while also continuing high-quality care for more than six million 黑料正能量ers.鈥 The administration expects to curb Medicaid spending in next year鈥檚 budget, he said.
After taking office in 2011, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, established a cap on the allowable growth in the Medicaid program and won legislative approval for the state Department of Health to reduce spending if outlays exceeded the set limit. According to Bill Hammond, health-policy director for the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, this year鈥檚 cost overruns were first disclosed in a May fiscal plan update.
That document said the Medicaid program only stayed within the cap last year by pushing a $1.7 billion payment from March into April, when a new fiscal year began. That overrun carried into the current fiscal year and has only been exacerbated by increasing enrollment in long-term care programs and payments to distressed hospitals, the state鈥檚 Budget Division said in an information statement posted in October.
That document estimated Medicaid spending was between $3 and $4 billion above its allotted rates. It said the administration would provide more details in an update due Oct. 30, including whether the state would pare spending in the next few months, and how the overruns would affect an overall $4 billion budget deficit projected for the next fiscal year.
More than 6 million 黑料正能量ers get health care through Medicaid. Not accounting for the overruns, the state Health Department projected it would spend $21.7 billion on Medicaid in the fiscal year that ends in March 2020.
Mr. Hammond said the Medicaid situation would cause the state鈥檚 deficit to expand. He faulted the Budget Division for holding back the midyear update, which by law should have been posted on Oct. 30. Mr. Cuomo has failed to meet the deadline every year that he has been governor.
鈥淲e鈥檙e so dependent on them to tell us what鈥檚 going on, because they have more information than anyone else,鈥 Mr. Hammond said. 鈥淲hen you find out they鈥檝e been holding that back and actively distorting facts, it pulls the rug out from everybody.鈥