Members in New York worked hard throughout the winter and early spring to keep up a steady drumbeat of emails, calls, rallies and lobby visits in Albany to roll back major cuts to healthcare spending that were initially proposed by the New York State Governor, Kathy Hochul.

Leaders in the NYS Senate and Assembly responded to the 1199ers demands by creating their own budgets, which reversed cuts and proposed significant investments in care. This set the table for final negotiations, which ultimately resulted in a strong budget agreement that protects healthcare and puts us on a positive path forward.

Highlights of the NYS Budget include: A new tax on insurance companies that will receive matching funds from the federal government to support Medicaid-funded services; An additional $800 million for safety-net hospitals plus other state and federal funding sources for financially struggling hospitals; The creation of a single, statewide Fiscal Intermediary (FI) to handle financial transactions for consumer-directed home care which will also eliminate the anti-union FIs.

In the end, the budget still falls short of what is truly needed to fix the real crisis facing the healthcare workforce and safety net providers. But 1199SEIU members can feel tremendously proud of the work they did, knowing it meant reversing the Governor’s proposed cuts and advancing our goal of Medicaid equity.