The coronavirus pandemic exposed a fundamental imbalance in New York’s approach to health policy: Albany spends too much money on its bloated Medicaid plan but neglects the public-health programs that used to be the Health Department’s main focus — such as controlling disease outbreaks and keeping nursing-home and hospital patients safe.
The state overregulates and excessively taxes commercial health insurance, meanwhile, saddling New Yorkers with some of the highest premiums in the continental United States — and pushing more people onto Medicaid.
Especially counterproductive is the state’s practice of financing Medicaid in part through billions in surcharges on commercial health plans, an approach that exacerbates the problem it’s meant to solve.
Read the full commentary in the New York Post. Adapted from “The Next New York: Renewing and Reforming the Empire State,” a project of the Empire Center at NextNewYork.net.
About the Author
You may also like
Don’t Copy New York’s Medicaid Home Care Disaster
As America ages, states are investing in home-based care for the elderly and disabled in hopes of keeping people out of nursing facilities—and maybe saving money in the bargain. Before going Read More
Get ready for blackouts, New York: Green energy is nowhere near ready to take over
New York will confront an increasingly serious energy-supply problem of its own making within the next decade. Read More
What Gov. Hochul must do to prevent a coming fiscal crash
The pandemic and its fiscal aftermath have given rise — temporarily — to a state budget trend unique in New York’s history. Read More
A Corona Commission for New York
New York is finally ahead of the coronavirus, but its outbreak stands as a world-wide horror story. A sophisticated city was caught unprepared and suffered some of the worst levels of infection and death. The need for an investigation is clear. The harder question is who can credibly take the lead. Read More
New York, beware Warren’s Rx
Elizabeth Warren is an unabashed believer in wealth redistribution, so it was predictable that her Medicare for All plan would hit high-income individuals and large corporations with trillions in tax hikes. More surprising are the two other targets she chooses to soak: states that spend most heavily on Medicaid, and employers that offer the costliest health benefits. Read More
Blame Cuomo for New York’s Medicaid crisis
When it comes to New York’s latest Medicaid mess, the buck stops with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Read More
What is ailing New York’s hospitals? They’re taking in lots of money but operating in the red
These should be boom times for New York’s hospitals, whose collective revenues have been surging by the billions for several years. Read More
Banishing Profit Is Bad for Your Health
Eliminating profit from an entire sector of the national economy would be unprecedented. But the example of New York, on a smaller scale, shows why it is a recipe for dysfunction. Read More