Contact: Bryn Lloyd-Bollard, bryn.lloydbollard@1199.org, 732-606-5949

Some 1000 healthcare workers will protest, and a plane banner will fly overhead, calling on the Governor to invest adequately in Medicaid.

Bronx, NY — Low-income communities like the Bronx will be harmed by Gov. Hochul’s healthcare budget, workers and advocates say, as she hosts a high-dollar fundraiser at the Yankees-Guardians game on Tuesday night.

Members of 1199SEIU will stage a protest outside the stadium to call attention to the fact that Gov. Hochul’s FY2024 budget puts healthcare funding in the red. Gov. Hochul has lauded her 7.5% increase to Medicaid funding as significant, but this amount is largely negated by her $200 million cut to safety net hospitals and the elimination of the 340b ‘pharmacy carveout’ program (cutting another $525 million). Healthcare costs have grown nearly 9% annually in recent years, with inflation and a pandemic-driven staffing crisis. This leaves Medicaid funding far short of costs. (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation & NY Medicaid Cost Reports, 2019-2021).

WHEN/WHERE:

The protest will begin at 5:30PM outside Yankee Stadium at the corner of River Ave. and 161st St in the Bronx.

A plane banner reading “Gov. Hochul: Medicaid Saves Lives!” will make rounds pre-game over Yankee Stadium from 5:15 to 5:45.

WHY:

As we emerge from three years of the worst health crisis in generations, New Yorkers need their Governor to step up and invest in healthcare. Across the state, emergency rooms are overflowing, patients face interminably long wait times for care, safety-net hospitals are on the brink of closure, and nursing home residents are delayed care due to poor staffing levels.

Our state’s most vulnerable people—including seniors, people with disabilities, and children of low-income families—are depending on our state leaders to improve healthcare funding, which the FY2024 budget fails to do. A clean Medicaid rate increase of at least 10% is the minimum needed to stabilize the healthcare system and meet New Yorkers’ needs.

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1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East is the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in America. We represent over 400,000 nurses and caregivers throughout Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Florida. Our mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all.