Press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tracy Munford
(212) 614-5538 (office)
(646) 483-6804 (cell)
Statement: The New York State Executive Budget
New York, NY, January 23, 2008 -- The Community Service Society commends Governor Spitzer's health budget proposal as an important step to improving the lives of low- and moderate-income New Yorkers.
Three budgetary initiatives will serve as important first steps to reducing the number of uninsured New Yorkers and improving the lives of working New York families.
First, in the wake federal inaction on the growing crisis of the uninsured, the governor's proposal to fund the SCHIP program (called Child Health Plus in New York) up to 400% of poverty with state-only dollars is an important first step toward achieving universal health coverage using our public insurance programs.
Second, CSS believes that simplifying Medicaid/Public Insurance enrollment will remove unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles in getting health coverage and streamline the means to maintain it. CSS especially supports the proposals to eliminate drug and alcohol tests, set up a single state portal to renew coverage via telephone, and expand state financing commitment to community based facilitated enrollers. These actions will lay the table for a full menu of health reform over the next few years.
Finally, rationalizing the bad debt and charity care financing system will help uninsured New Yorkers get the care they need. While those who are eligible for programs access care, those who may earn too much wait for the day that New York State develops a universal health care program.
For 160 years the Community Service Society of New York has been the leading voice on behalf of low income New Yorkers and continues to advocate for the economic security of the working poor in the nation's largest city.
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