The potential gutting of hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for Medicaid under consideration by Congress could hit close to home for Long Islanders.
Nearly 680,000 residents of Suffolk and Nassau counties rely on Medicaid for their healthcare, according to figures provided by the Healthcare Education Project at a forum on Medicaid equity at the Riverhead Free Library Feb. 19. Additionally, 48 percent of births here are covered by Medicaid, four in nine Long Island children and people with disabilities are covered by Medicaid, and 15.20 percent of recipients here are seniors.
Pictured Above: Members of the Healthcare Education Project and the 1199SEIU healthcare workers union have been rallying outside New York congressional offices this winter against cuts to Medicaid. |. Healthcare Education Project photo
The Healthcare Education Project is a New York-based advocacy organization created by the Greater New York Hospital Association and the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East union of healthcare workers, and is part of a national movement underway called “Hands Off Medicaid.”
The battle in Washington over whether Congress should cut funding for Medicaid has proved to be far more heated than many other funding cuts proposed at the beginning of the new federal administration. Such cuts would impact many residents of rural red states, including Louisiana, Kentucky and West Virginia. Like in New York, roughly 30 percent of residents in these states depend on Medicaid.
Even President Donald Trump has been skeptical of the cuts, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity Feb. 19 that “Medicare, Medicaid — none of that stuff is going to be touched,” though the White House later clarified that it is committed to slashing “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the program.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson was proposing cuts of $880 billion to the program in mid-February, as part of $2 trillion in house spending cuts proposed to help offset the extension of and expansion of tax cuts enacted in the first Trump administration in 2017, which expire at the end of this year.
Closer to home, Congressman Nick LaLota said Feb. 15 that he is “committed to common sense reforms” to Medicaid, including work requirements, ensuring only U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents receive benefits and stopping “waste, fraud and abuse in New York’s Medicaid system.”
The Hands Off Medicaid organizers are urging residents to call Mr. LaLota’s district office at 631.289.1097 to express their concerns.
Medicaid coverage cost $101.5 billion in New York in 2024, according to the Office of the State Comptroller, of which the federal government paid $57.1 billion, the state paid $35.9 billion and localities paid $8.5 billion.
According to the Healthcare Education Project, more than $9.1 billion worth of medical services are provided annually to Medicaid recipients on Long Island.
The Healthcare Education Project is planning to bring Long Islanders to a lobbying day in Albany on Tuesday, Feb. 25, with three buses departing various locations on the island. The farthest east will pick up passengers at 6 a.m. at the park and ride at Exit 63 on the Long Island Expressway. Find Out More.
“If you are not affected directly, these are your neighbors, your friends, your family, the folks in the pew in front of you and behind you at church, folks at grocery stores,” Marcelle Dinnall, the downstate lead advocate for the Healthcare Education Process, told the gathering in Riverhead. “Why should these vulnerable populations have to suffer? So the rich can get richer? Ask your elected officials whose side they are on.”
She added that in communities where people are lacking insurance, they often end up going to the emergency room for medical care, creating a strain on already burdened emergency departments, while Medicaid recipients are able to access routine medical care outside of the emergency room, leading to better overall health and less strain on the healthcare system.
“How many of you have to wait an hour or more just to be triaged [in the emergency room],” she said. “It’s a strain on medical facilities.”
Naquasha Bias, a home care worker and member of 1199SEIU, said she’s worked in home care for “14 roller coaster years,” and the proposed cuts also affect home care, an historically low-paying field of work.
Of the 80 million people receiving Medicaid nationwide, she said, 4.5 million of them receive some kind of at-home care to assist with their daily needs.
“This will put many home care workers out of a job and out of the joy they get from simply caring,” she said. “At home caregivers are essential. We help make it happen. The elderly depend on us. I was once a recipient of Medicaid. Now I have great health care, but whether someone is partially or fully funded by Medicaid, everyone deserves proper healthcare. These cuts cannot happen. and we will continue to fight, because somewhere down the line, it will affect us all.”
More details on the Healthcare Education Project are at healthcareeducationproject.org.
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