HCFANY worked hard on a series of important priorities this budget season, described in this policy brief.  The final enacted budget can be found here.

Here’s the quick summary of how we did:

Comprehensive coverage for immigrants

HCFANY Recommendation: Provide $10.3 million in State funding to offer Essential Plan (EP) to legal immigrants who are barred from federally-funded EP.

Result: Although the Assembly One House bill included the $10.3 million in State funding, the proposal did not make it in the final budget.

Full funding for Community Health Advocates (CHA)

HCFANY Recommendation: Provide $4 million in funding for CHA to help people with their insurance problems and access to health care problems, when they occur.

Result: The final budget included $3.25 million for CHA–$2.5 million from the Executive and $750,000 from the Assembly.  Due to the intricacies of State contracting, this means that the CHA program faces an 18% cut from the past year.

Prior Approval of insurance plan rate increases

HCFANY Recommendation: Reject a Senate One House bill proposal to repeal the State’s right to review proposed insurance premium increases.

Result: The measure was not included in the enacted budget.

Health Guaranty Fund

HCFANY Recommendation: Support with modifications the Senate and Assembly stand-alone bill which sought to set up a Health Guaranty fund to reimburse providers in the wake of a health plan closing (e.g. Health Republic).

Result: The budget establishes a fund that will be financed through “settlement funds” to reimburse providers. The process for distributing the funds is unknown and it appears to include no public representation and/or public reporting on the distributions.

Medicaid beneficiary protections

HCFANY Recommendation: HCFANY opposed the following threats to Medicaid beneficiaries: elimination of spousal/parental refusal, reduction of resources that spouses of people in MLTC or nursing homes can keep, and the repeal of “prescriber prevails.”

Result: None of these proposals made the final budget. That means spousal/parental refusal remains intact, spouses of people in MLTC or nursing homes will not see a cut in the amount of resources they can keep, and “prescriber prevails” will continue to be available in Medicaid.