t’s that time of year again!   The 2022 New York State Legislative Session opened earlier this month with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address where she laid out her broad policy and legislative goals, and there’s some very good stuff she’s put on the table (and some stuff missing.)  A couple of weeks ago, she released her proposed FY 2022-23 state budget, and there’s some very stuff in it (and some stuff missing.)

Now it’s time for all of us to all get up-to-speed and in motion!  Here’s a few upcoming events to help everyone prepare:

Thurs. Feb. 3, 1 to 4 p.m. – Health Care for All New York’s Online Annual Winter Meeting. The keynote speaker is Danielle Holahan, Executive Director of New York State of Health, plus there will be a special salute to the Campaign for Excluded Workers.Strategic campaigns to be discussed include 1) proposals to expand and improve public health insurance programs to more lower-income people, 2) helping uninsured people get enrolled in and use coverage they are eligible for, 3) increasing funding for safety net hospitals, 4) new rights and protections for patients with medical debt they cannot pay, and 5) improving a local community’s role in the oversight of their hospitals; RSVP and more info here.

Tues. Feb. 8, 9:30 a.m. – All-Day Online Public Hearing on Gov. Hochul’s Budget Proposals for Health Care and Medicaid; RSVPs and more info here; and watch live online here.

Fri. Feb. 11, 1:30 p.m. –Webinar for Advocates on Health Care Aspects of Gov. Hochul’s Budget Proposals; jointly sponsored by Campaign for NY Health, Coverage for All, Health Care for All NY, and Medicaid Matters NY; RSVPs and more info here,

The Legislature’s budget session concludes on March 31^st, so we’ve only got about 2 months to make sure we can get the best stuff possible in the budget. After that, we’ll be pivoting to several non-budgetary proposals to make sure they move forward before the end of this year’s legislative session in early June.

What Gov. Hochul is proposing in her budget for health care:

• Expanding eligibility for Medicaid coverage for more low-income people on Medicare.
• Expanding eligibility for Essential Plan coverage for more moderate-income people.
• Improving Child Health Plus coverage, and eliminating all nominal premiums for it for moderate-income families.
• Expanding Medicaid post-pregnancy coverage from 2 months up to a full year for all legal residents.
• Licensing and regulating Pharmacy Benefit Management companies.

What’s still missing for health care:

• Expanding Essential Plan coverage to all low-income immigrants.
• Including all immigrant women under the post-pregnancy Medicaid expansion (see above.)
• Directing Indigent Care Pool funding solely to safety net hospitals that serve large numbers of uninsured, low-income, and Medicaid patients.
• Repealing eligibility restrictions on Medicaid long-term care enacted in 2020 but not yet implemented.
• Raising salaries for Medicaid home and community-based long-term care workers to a living wage level, and making sure that they and their families will not arbitrarily be throw them off needed public programs for health care, food, housing, and utilities.
• Eliminating the arbitrary annual growth cap for Medicaid spending.

What about universal health care?  This issue is not being raised by either Gov. Hochul or our legislative champions in the context of the FY 2022-23 budget negotiations. Instead, it will come into play after April 1^st, so watch for future emails about that then.  In the meantime, as you speak to lawmakers, we urge everyone to continue to stress the imperative of moving toward a statewide universal health care program as quickly as possible. If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it is that we cannot fully address the public health and health care needs of all New Yorkers without one.