Emergency Medicaid Briefing – 5/16/2025
In this emergency briefing, FPI's health policy director, Michael Kinnucan, discusses the current budget reconciliation proposals to cut Medicaid and how these policies will impact New York State.
The House Medicaid Proposal Would be a Disaster for New York
In February, Congressional Republicans – including all seven New York representatives – voted for a budget reconciliation package requiring $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next ten years. The reconciliation package set an overall target for spending reductions, but didn’t announce what specifically would be cut from the program. This week, House leadership finally revealed which program areas will be targeted.
Budget Breakdown: Fiscal Year 2026 Enacted Budget
The Enacted Budget, while it contains few significant new policy initiatives, allows state spending to recover some of the lost ground from a decade of austerity policies in the 2010s. The most important policy measure in the budget is a long overdue increase in unemployment insurance benefits that will better prepare the State economy for a possible recession (discussed in detail below). The bad news is that the Enacted Budget contains serious fiscal errors, including permanent tax cuts and one-time payments that will cost $3 billion in fiscal year 2026 alone.
FPI’s Fiscal Year 2026 Enacted Budget Briefing
FPI presented a briefing on the New York State budget for fiscal year 2026.
Has New York Already Entered Stagflation?
Stagflation is the deadly combination of low growth and high inflation. With the implementation of sweeping and high tariffs by the federal government, most economists and forecasters currently predict something resembling “stagflation” on the Unites States’ economic horizon. But New York may have already entered a period of stagflation: New York’s economy has recovered the jobs lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, but lags the economic growth seen in the rest of the country.
Statement on Governor Hochul’s Announcement of a Budget Agreement
Budget agreement includes serious fiscal missteps that will undermine the State’s ability to weather federal funding cuts
Cutting through the Noise on Congressional Medicaid Cuts
Republicans have argued that they can cut Medicaid without cutting services to vulnerable populations by cutting “waste, fraud and abuse”; by targeting people who are not, or in their view should not be, eligible for the program; and by reforming complex state financing mechanisms like provider taxes.
Federal Policy Briefings
Thursday Briefing, April 17 https://youtu.be/AOGhN5R9myw
The Trump Administration Just Cut Hundreds of Millions of Dollars from New York’s 1115 Waiver
The Trump Administration Just Cut Hundreds of Millions of Dollars a Year from New York’s 1115 waiver – and that could be just the beginning
What to Look for in New York City’s Executive Budget
The Adopted Budget should anticipate realistic revenue and spending on core services while maintaining a flexible reserve to prepare for fiscal uncertainty. The budget response put forward by the City Council takes important steps toward these goals.
Budget Negotiations have Finally Started
Final budget must omit tax cuts, shore up funding for essential services – transit, childcare, housing – and fix unemployment insurance
New Bill Could Address NY’s Spiraling Healthcare Costs
New York State legislators have the opportunity to address private sector healthcare affordability by passing the Fair Pricing Act (S.705/A.2140). The act would address the root cause of rising healthcare costs by regulating hospital prices, which are the key driver of spiraling healthcare inflation.
State Ends Year with $6 Billion over Projections
New York State’s fiscal year 2025 ended on March 31 with good news for the State’s coffers: Total receipts for the year came in $6.0 billion higher than forecast as of January 2025, and a full $12.3 billion higher than forecast at the beginning of the fiscal year in May 2024. As we enter the final stage of budget negotiations, this additional revenue will allow the State to prepare for federal funding cuts by investing in the MTA, childcare, NYCHA, and other critical services and infrastructure.
Ensuring Adequate Funding for Childcare
New York State has enacted substantial expansions to its childcare subsidy program in recent years, supporting more families than ever. Yet the State risks undermining these gains by underfunding the program in fiscal year 2026, forcing New York City and other localities across the state to deny service to eligible families beginning as early as April 2025, putting them on a waitlist.
Preventing a NYCHA Budget Crisis
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) houses over 500,000 New Yorkers and receives a majority of its funding from the federal government, leaving it especially at risk of impending federal budget cuts. New York State must be prepared to fill gaps in both the operating funding and capital funding for NYCHA.