The Wall Street Journal-20080118-New York Has Reduced Medicaid Spending Growth
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New York Has Reduced Medicaid Spending Growth
Tarren Bragdon's call for New York State to expand health insurance by focusing on the private, direct-pay health insurance market ("Cross Country: A Question for Hillary," op-ed, Jan. 5) contains inaccuracies about the state's Medicaid spending and its efforts to reduce the number of uninsured residents.
While New York indeed spends more than all other states on Medicaid -- and in the process provides its most vulnerable residents with the most comprehensive care possible -- the state's Medicaid spending growth has nonetheless been drastically reduced the past few years, as Gov. Eliot Spitzer's office has repeatedly pointed out. And the spending growth that has occurred can be attributed to New York's very deliberate decision to take care of its uninsured citizens, and contrary to Mr. Bragdon's assertion, we are seeing positive results. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 population survey found New York's uninsured rate, 13.5%, to be well below the national average of 15.7%. In fact, New York has come to lead every other state in the nation in reducing its number of uninsured residents, mainly by adding to the Medicaid and Family Health Plus programs people who were dropped from private insurers or lost health insurance due to a precipitous decline in employer-sponsored coverage.
Solving the problem of the uninsured will require hard work, determination and creative solutions. And it won't happen overnight. But Mr. Bragdon is dead wrong in thinking that New York hasn't begun to make meaningful strides in the right direction.
Kenneth E. Raske
President
Greater New York
Hospital Association
New York
