On December 16, Governor Paterson released his budget proposal for SFY 2009–10. The proposal contains unprecedented levels of health care spending cuts and taxes of $3.5 billion, including:
- $799 million in hospital cuts,
- $424 million in nursing home cuts, and
- $190 million in home care cuts.
The cuts, if enacted, would result in layoffs, elimination of health care services, and, in some cases, facility closures.
To read the Executive budget proposal,
click here.
GNYHA is in the process of analyzing the proposal in more detail. In the meantime, the Healthcare Education Project (HEP), the partnership between GNYHA and 1199 SEIU, has released this
preliminary statement
56.3 KB. Additionally, this
Member Letter Bulletin has been distributed to GNYHA member hospitals.
HEP also has launched an
advocacy campaign based on the idea of “shared sacrifice”—in order to eliminate the State’s enormous deficit, all sectors of the New York economy and, in fact, all New Yorkers, must contribute their fair share.