Cuomo: Health Care Amendment ‘Declared War on New York’
Collins-Faso amendment would prevent counties from shouldering Medicaid costs
An amendment by New York Reps. Chris Collins and John Faso to the health care bill the House is to vote on Thursday is a declaration of war against the state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
The proposal by upstate Republicans Collins and Faso would prevent New York counties from shouldering the cost of Medicaid, leaving the responsibility to the state alone, New York media outlets reported.
Collins argued that it would reduce the property tax burden for New Yorkers.
“Year after year, Albany’s leadership relies on counties to foot the bill for New York State’s out-of-control Medicaid costs,” Collins said in a statement. “Enough is enough.”
The amendment is seen as crucial to getting Faso and Collins’ upstate New York Republican colleagues to support the GOP plan to replace the 2010 health care law signed by former President Barack Obama.
Collins and Faso introduced the amendment with the support of Reps. Elise Stefanik, Tom Reed and Claudia Tenney.
But Cuomo said the amendment amounts to a “targeted war on New York,” and would reduce the amount of care New Yorkers would receive.
“What they leave out is, if the county doesn’t pay its share, there’s another $2.3 billion cut to Medicaid on top of everything else,” Cuomo said at a news conference with state health care and hospital representatives. ““And that means less people are going to get health care assistance.”
But Collins, who was one of the first members of Congress to back President Donald Trump, said Cuomo should be able to find money in the state budget.
“If he says that he can’t find the level of savings in this program, it just proves he and his staff are completely incompetent and they ought to step aside,” Collins said.
But Cuomo said the measure was New York’s Republican representatives following House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and the “radical right,” rather than serving the interests of their constituents.
“My greatest fear from last year’s election has actually come true, which is you would have a rabid conservative ideology in Washington that would tell New York to ‘drop dead,’ and that is exactly what is going on,” he said.
