Medicaid Funding Targeted in State Budget

By Rachel Barnhart, 13WHAM

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Rochester, N.Y. – Debbie Bonomo gets 15 hours of home health care every day. She lives alone in her house and uses a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. Medicaid pays for the service.

“Without that service, I’m not able to get up in the morning. I’m not able to get dressed, go to the bathroom, get out of the house, go to work,” she said.

Medicaid is expected to take a big hit in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget that will be unveiled on Tuesday. The governor wants to shave $2 billion from the $53 billion program that serves the poor and disabled.

“I think there will be dramatic cuts in Medicaid,” said Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.

New York spends more on Medicaid than any other state and its benefits are considered the most generous. In Monroe County alone, more than 130,000 people are enrolled in Medicaid. The county employs 120 people to manage the $151 million program. Forty cents of every dollar paid in county sales tax goes to fund Medicaid.

“It’s the largest program that we fund. We have to do something,” Brooks said. “If we don’t do something to reign in the cost of Medicaid, it won’t be there for anybody.”

Brooks said area hospitals, including the county-run Monroe Community Hospital, will likely take a hit in reimbursement rates. She said area nursing homes are also bracing for cuts.

Cuomo is releasing his budget at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Arc of Monroe, which serves the developmentally disabled, gets 80 percent of its funding from Medicaid.

“With additional cuts, we’re going to have to look very carefully at what we do, how we do it and try to have as least impact on the individuals that we support here at the Arc of Monroe,” said President and CEO Barbara Wale. “Without our staff, without our facilities, folks would not be able to be in the community.”

Bonomo said her worst fear being institutionalized, which disability rights advocates say is a more expensive alternative.

“I would be put at risk, high risk of being put in a nursing home,” Bonomo said. “I depend on these services each and every day.”