State Leaders Issue Letter,  Calling on Senators to Stand Up for NY

Today, Governor Paterson and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a letter to Senators Gillibrand and Schumer on the Senate’s  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The letter specifically asked the Senators to pay special attention to how the bill puts undue burden on high cost States, like New York. The Governor and Major highlight that under the current Senate bill, the  process of Medicaid reimbursement and Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments harm New York–which has done the right thing and expanded its Medicaid program up to 150% FPL.

Read the letter here.

Sign-On to Lift the 5-year Ban on Immigrant Access to Medicaid

HCFANY applauds Senator Menendez’s (D-NJ) introduction of an amendment (co-sponsored by Senators Durbin, Rockefeller, and Bingaman) that would give states the option to remove the five-year waiting period for legal immigrants to obtain Medicaid. Allowing states to extend Medicaid coverage to low-income, legal immigrants will save lives and meet the President’s health reform goals of expanding coverage and controlling costs.

Read more about this issue here.

Many HCFANY members and affiliates have signed-on to the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum’s letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid in support of this amendment.

Read the letter here.

If your organization would like to sign on to the letter, email Amanda at RJfellow@napawf.org by close of business Wednesday, December 9. Please include your organizations name, address and contact information.