January 26, 2007
'DAY ONE' FOR HEALTH CARE
 |
Spitzer gets serious about health care reform |
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer will speak today to a small invitation-only crowd of health care providers and advocates at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany to lay out his principles for wide-ranging health care reforms in New York.
A key message point (that's also a no-brainer): Spitzer will cut or eliminate Medicaid subsidies for hospitals and other institutions that don't serve many Medicaid beneficiaries.
Instead, the Governor and his advisers will concentrate resources on improving access and quality for the low-income and disabled women, men and children who use the program.
Redirecting dollars
Spitzer's executive budget proposal, due next week, will move money away from hospitals and academic medical centers (often in rich neighborhoods) that don't serve many actual Medicaid patients.
And most of those dollars, say insiders, will be reinvested in getting more children and adults into health care and expanding quality care in poorer neighborhoods where most Medicaid beneficiaries live.
Big providers won't see their payments slashed to the bone – they'll still be compensated for the real cost of providing care. But a number of big, expensive, centralized health care complexes will have to live without the subsidies and slush funds that helped them stay afloat during the Pataki era.
Expanding access
As he mentioned in his State-of-the-State speech earlier this month, Spitzer and his health care team will work in the coming months to enroll over 800,000 New Yorkers who are eligible for Medicaid but not currently enrolled.
The benefit: more preventive and primary care that can stop high-cost emergency room visits and inpatient hospitalizations down the line.
And Spitzer is expected to announce a significant expansion of coverage for uninsured children, together with application and recertification streamlining proposals that will make it easier for families and individuals who qualify for Medicaid to get coverage and keep it.
Improving health
All these initiatives are designed to deliver better and more effective care to the millions of low-income and disabled New Yorkers who rely on Medicaid for survival.
New initiatives will focus on improving and coordinating care for those with multiple disabilities; on reducing childhood obesity; and on expanding independent living options outside of high-cost nursing homes.
We'll have more on the Spitzer speech and on the all-important executive budget proposal in next week's Update.