Central New Yorkers gathered Wednesday for the bittersweet 60th birthday celebration of two federal health care programs that face historic cuts in the years ahead. There’s deep concern about the impact of lost Medicaid and Medicare coverage on vulnerable residents.
Members of the crowd enumerated the ways more than 30,000 recipients in the region would lose care under the massive spending bill approved earlier this month. Long-time disability activist Agnes McCray said she’s lived a productive, independent, and healthy life because of Medicaid.
“It's scary," McCray said. "I just want to remain healthy so that I can continue to do what I do as an advocate. Most of the programs that I've had is about more than health. It's about my freedom and my right to choose.”
McCray, who uses a wheelchair, says she worries she’ll be forced to move to a nursing home from her home where she lives with her two grown children to The $1 trillion dollar cut to Medicaid and a half billion to Medicare translates to a $14 billion hit to New York State. Sen. Rachel May said it’s a major threat to the health care safety net.
“We're going to have to really think how do we, can we even begin to plug that $14 billion hole," May said. "That's going to be really, really hard to do. I believe in raising taxes, but It's not easy.”
Ursula Rozum is with the group Citizen Action of New York, which organized the event.
“There's money out there. Corporations are becoming more profitable every year,” Rozum said. "We're going to be calling on the on state government to look at different sources of revenue including taxing rich New Yorkers and corporations. Our first thing is we need state lawmakers to protect New Yorkers.”
She’s demanding the state to hold a special session this fall to address the budget shortfall and ensure vulnerable residents continue to receive the care they need.
