A group of women in Rensselaer County are calling on the local legislature to prepare for potential cuts to Medicaid.
President Trump and Republicans who control Washington are looking to pull back billions of dollars in funding to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as part of their budget plans. Trump is seeking to cut roughly $2.5 trillion in government spending and fund tax cuts.
According to Medicaid, more than 6.6 million New Yorkers were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP as of October. A Republican-led continuing resolution was passed this month, avoiding a government shutdown and funding the federal government through September.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which just announced its own round of cuts, describes Medicaid as a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for eligible people with limited income and resources.
In New York, counties take on a lot of the responsibility of administering the program. And independent group Rensselaer County Women for Change is calling on county legislators to address the potential cuts and the impact it could have on residents.
Co-chair Sally Lauletta says the cuts could leave thousands of vulnerable residents without coverage. Lauletta says according to data collected by local nonprofits, roughly 30 percent of the county’s enrollees could lose coverage. She adds it will also impact staffing at facilities.
“Let's say a school employs speech therapists for their special needs students who have an IEP,” Lauletta said. “And on the IEP, it says, ‘student receives speech therapy,’ and that is it's Medicaid billable, and if those funds aren't there, then can the school district still provide that level of service if their Medicaid funding is now cut?”
The county runs five senior centers with more than 4,000 residents.
County Executive Steve McLaughlin says the county has modernized its senior centers and will invest $100 million this year to renovate its nursing home, Van Rensselaer Manor. A detailed report of the county’s 2025 adopted budget and expenditure breakdown can be found on the county’s website.
Lauletta says the group is asking the legislature to take a look at the county’s budget to see where changes could be made to fill potential gaps caused by federal funding cuts.
Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed a 4.5 percent increase in investments to the state Department of Health, which manages Medicaid and other programs. More than $105 billion of Hochul’s $252 billion budget proposal is slated to go toward investments in health.
Rensselaer County residents receiving Medicaid are required to enroll into one of the Health Maintenance Organizations contracted by the county. That’s instead of enrolling in medical services on a “fee for service” basis through Medicaid. Residents can only use their Medicaid card for prescriptions, dental services, and transportation. For all other services, they are required to use the health plan card. As of May 2023, about a fifth of the county’s roughly 161,000 residents were enrolled in Medicaid Managed Care.
Deputy Minority Leader of the county legislature Nina Nichols says she’s open to discussing a contingency plan with her colleagues.
“I think part of the issue, of course, is the chaos on the federal administration level, and understanding exactly what is being proposed and how those impacts would impact affect us, but definitely would want to work with my legislators across the aisle and with our county executive to keep an eye again on those high-cost centers, so that we're assessing Where the worst impacts would happen and how to mitigate them,” Nichols said.
The Democrat from the 1st District says if services are cut, the county would have to act to protect residents’ health.
“The Medicaid is a significant budgetary item, and there would have to be a response. There would have to be some kind of response. There are too many different services that this would impact,” Nichols said. “And I believe that all of our elected leaders care about the residents of Rensselaer County and are going to want to do what we can to ensure that people are getting the care and the services that they need.”
McLaughlin, a former state Assemblyman, says he’s not even going to address the request.
“That's a group of people that are just self-important. They're elected by nobody. They represent a very minuscule fraction of very nasty people. I'm not addressing them. I don't report to them,” McLaughlin said. “I report to the public in general, and I've read their demands or their requests. They can write that to the legislature if they want, but they are of no standing in this county other than they self-appointed themselves, so they hold no other standing than any other citizen of this county.”
A liaison for the Legislature’s Republican Majority told WAMC the party “has not heard of or seen any materials from any organization regarding a potential contingency plan for potential cuts to Medicaid.” The majority did not respond to a follow-up providing the text of the request.
CMS did not respond to WAMC’s request for comment.
