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WPCNR ALBANY  ROUNDS. From the Governor’s Office. March 22, 2017:

Yesterday, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo held a briefing to discuss the devastating impact that the American Health Care Act and the Collins/Faso Amendment will have on New Yorkers. Following the briefing, New York State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson released a video to explain the significant damage that residents of New York State would face under the proposed Republican health care plan.

In New York, 2.7 million New Yorkers would face substantial loss in their current health care coverage while the quality and availability of health services across the state would be jeopardized.

The reduction in Medicaid spending will have a significant impact on funding for nursing homes, home care, and hospitals, putting 7 million New Yorkers at risk.

Congressmen Chris Collins and John Faso have introduced an amendment to the American Health Care Act that would ban federal reimbursement for state Medicaid funds for local governments outside of New York City, cutting Medicaid for these local governments by $2.3 billion. When added to the $4.5 billion cost of the ACHA over the next four years, the total cost to the State would rise to $6.9 billion.

A transcript of State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson’s video is available below.

This act is going to be devastating. 24 million Americans are going to lose health insurance because of this act. 2.7 million of them living in New York State. It’s going to be a massive budget buster for the state of New York, devastating impacts to health care access, and real life implications for thousands- in fact millions of our fellow citizens.

The Collins amendment is really a war on New York and unfortunately it’s being waged by two Republican members of our own congressional delegation. It actually targets New York and only New York with a 2.3 billion dollar cut.

That 2.3 billion dollars, on top of the other cuts already contained in this act, are making this probably the biggest step back in health care access in New York’s history. And as a result of this we are really seeing not only 7 million people who rely on Medicaid and the other programs created under the Affordable Care Act- their health care access threatened, but actually the health care system itself in New York State, that serves 19.5 million New Yorkers.

All of us as New Yorkers—our health care system is now at risk because of that particular action that was taken by those two members of our own congressional delegation.

The best thing to do is call your members of Congress. Send a message that Ryan’s aggressive, radical, conservative agenda is not what we need in New York.

The people who are elected by you, the citizens of New York, to represent you in Congress, should be representing your interests, but unfortunately those who vote for this act, those who vote for this amendment, are not in fact doing that. They’re voting against your interests and you need to make your voice heard and call your representatives in Congress to tell them what you think about this horrific piece of legislation.