Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer visited Schenectady today, warning the federal funding freeze could severely impact New York's community health centers.
Schumer is demanding reassurance from the Trump administration that Community Health Centers or CHC's will receive payments they are owed.
Schumer spoke outside the Hometown Health Centers Dental Clinic on State Street. "Trump said Medicaid would be exempt from the funding freeze, and then automatically, the payment system in HHS just shut down," said Schumer. "It's happened multiple times in the past two weeks, and we don't have any answers. We don't have any answers as to why. It's back online now, but everywhere, hearing from home health care centers across New York state, that they are the funding is intermittent. They go on and offline again and again and again. When these folks had their funding shut off, they were just so upset and frightened, for good reason. Should they lay off staff? Should they not give a two week health care plan to someone who came in because they might not have funding next week? What do they do if they don't have money for the rent?"
Schumer says 17% of Hometown Health's funding comes from the federal government. He notes other health centers like Whitney Young in Albany and Hudson Headwaters in the North Country also face uncertainties and a looming funding cliff next month.
"110,000 people in the Capital Region depend on community health centers. 2.4 million people in New York depend on community health centers. If they don't renew the funding on March the 14th, 2.4 million people in New York will not have the health care they need, the efficient, effective, compassionate, caring health care that they get from community health centers," Schumer said.
Hometown Health CEO Joe Gambino says the facility serves anyone, rich or poor, providing primary care, pharmacy, OBGYN, mental health services and help with addiction.
"President Trump should come here, visit Hometown and see you know our operation and how we how we serve the community, I invite him here. That's a non-political statement. We, as health centers try not to be political. We work with both sides of the aisle, but any time we can get advocacy, we'll take it, that's for sure. But anyone from the administration is welcome to come here to see the good use of the dollars that we get every single year. And with that, I'd like to think that cooler heads will prevail. The money will continue to flow and we'll continue to do the good work that we do," Gambino said.
Schumer vows he'll lead Senate Democrats to fight to protect funding for CHCs and Medicaid. He points out the current funding package approved in December that supports the health centers was bipartisan. That came before Republicans assumed control of the Senate and Trump ordered his sweeping reviews of federal funding streams.
![A clipping from the Chicago Sun Times on Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Featured Letter:
[image caption] Participants in the "Free Our People March" travel last week along Route 40 in Maryland, about the halfway point between the start in Philadelphia and its destination in Washington. Photo courtesy of Tom Olin
[Headline] Disabled get on the move for freedom
We just celebrated the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. Forty years later, people with disabilities still have a dream of escaping nursing homes institutions and going back to the community.
About 150 disabled activists-- many in wheelchairs--convened at 4 to begin a 150 mile march on Philadelphia to Washington. [s] two-week "Free Our People March" will end at Washington [k] in our nation's capital today to [m] the need for more home- and community-based attendant services, and to call attention to the institutional bias that lingers in this country. More than 80 percent of Medicaid long-term care dollars are spent keeping people institutionalized, while less than 20 percent as- people who want to live in their homes and apartments, where they are much happier.
[pulled quote] We have a dream to live independently
[text resumes] There's federal legislation that would address this issue: the Medicaid Community Attendants Service and Supports Act. Introduced by Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), H.R. 2032 would assist people with disabilities--regardless of age--in nursing homes back into the community, using the same Medicaid funding that's used to keep them institutionalized. Statistics show that people are much happier and productive living in their own homes instead of languishing in nursing homes.
The major obstacles of MiCASS's passage in Congress are the nursing home lobbyists in Illinois and around the country. Profit is their bottom line, and they have deep pockets to buy off legislators. They continue to be a threat to the civil rights of people with disabilities. They disregard the quality of life for people stuck in their institutions; they see the almighty dollar sign and don't hear the cries of the people who want out.
About 5,000 people with disablities will descend on Washington Park to rally for justice and the right to live in the mainstream community. We have a dream to live independently, free from segregation, as Dr. King could have related to. It's time to have our dream realized.
Larry Biondi,
independant living advocate,
Progress Center for Independent Living, Forest Park](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/fe5f95e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/786x438+0+169/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2F9e%2Fe3cbdf7e4734ba49acbb4c469809%2F20201127153858-818e5d9a-xx.jpg)