(Long Island, NY) The following statement was released by HANYS’ President Daniel Sisto Regarding President Obama’s Federal Budget Proposal:
“Medicare patients who rely on locally available health care services would suffer the most under the President’s federal budget proposal released today. It is a plan that would effectively shatter local health care service delivery in many regions of the state and nation.
“The President’s plan would cut Medicare by additional $370 billion, on top of $155 billion in Medicare cuts enacted in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The President’s proposed cuts to New York State hospitals are even greater than the recently imposed health care sequestration cuts, which the president railed against as harmful to the American people.
“Even before these latest cuts were proposed, evidence has mounted indicating that we have already over-steered and cut too much. New York State has lost 34 hospitals and 71 nursing homes in the last 13 years, including 12 hospitals in the last five years alone.
“These additional cuts would ensure even more localized pockets of chaos and crisis in communities across the country as the most vulnerable institutions and service providers would lose their ability to provide a full array of essential health services.
“Virtually every important element of our health care system is damaged by these proposals – from critical access hospitals in our rural and isolated areas, to our academic medical centers that educate and ensure our needed supply of physicians, to our nursing homes and programs that care for those in need.
“These proposals also would set back reform efforts in New York State. As elected officials here seek to stabilize inner city and rural hospitals, this proposal continues the assault on providers. The Administration in Washington is enrolling millions of people into a health system that can’t meet the promise of providing accessible high-quality care because they have reneged on a commitment not to cut hospitals for over ten years, beyond the savings they extracted in the ACA.
“HANYS will be working aggressively with our Congressional Delegation to fight these proposed cuts and any other similar proposal.”
The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) is the only statewide hospital and continuing care association in New York State, representing 500 non-profit and public hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, and other health care organizations.
