Legislature's counter budgets soundly reject Hochul's Medicaid cuts

State lawmakers made their state health spending priorities clear with the release of the Legislature's one-house budgets this week – soundly rejecting Gov. Kathy Hochul's posed $1.2 billion in Medicaid cuts in the final spending plan due at the end of the month. The state would apply for a special federal waiver for three years to maximize the money the state is reimbursed for Medicaid programs – following in California's recent footsteps. Advocates said Wednesday they're encouraged that lawmakers also nixed Hochul's changes to the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program that allows elderly or disabled patients to choose their caregivers, or control how their services are delivered. "Those changes would have resulted in over 100,000 people losing eligibility and about 150,000 workers getting a 12% pay cut," said Bryan O'Malley, executive director of Consumer Directed Action of New York (an Applied Self-Direction Member). "And so the restoration of these cuts by the Legislature is tremendous."