{"id":108057,"date":"2026-01-22T02:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/108057\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T02:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:24:10","slug":"hochuls-proposed-budget-includes-massive-medicaid-spending-but-dr-oz-could-sink-nys-funding-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/108057\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul’s proposed budget includes massive Medicaid spending, but Dr. Oz could sink NYS’ funding options"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s budget proposal<\/a> includes a massive boost to Medicaid spending that\u2019s already dramatically outpacing other states \u2014 but Dr. Oz<\/a> could shake up her plan to tap into a nearly $10 billion trust fund already on New York\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

Hochul is proposing to hike Medicaid spending by 11.4% in her $260 billion budget proposal \u2014 another $3.9 billion from the current spending plan with the Empire State already dishing out 46% above the federal average.<\/p>\n

Spending has tripled in the last 15 years and increased $15 billion under Hochul\u2019s tenure largely due to New York\u2019s policy that the program pay more for additional prescription benefits and coverage of home care services.<\/p>\n

Dr. Oz could threaten Gov. Hochul\u2019s budget proposal that has a massive boost into Medicaid spending. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

But former TV star turned the Trump administration\u2019s Medicaid boss Dr. Mehmet Oz could issue a decision that could shake New York\u2019s entire state budget because a large portion of the 1.8 million residents on the \u201cEssential Plan\u201d aren\u2019t US citizens, which is now barred from federal bucks under last year\u2019s \u201cBig Beautiful Bill<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are about 1.8 million New Yorkers on the plan including more than 700,000 green card holders and other \u201cpermanently residing non-citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven how many people depend on this program for their health care, and given the possibility that that health care could be going away in the very near future, the governor and the rest of the state owe them a lot more clarity about what\u2019s going to happen and why,\u201d said Bill Hammond, Senior Fellow for Health Policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy.<\/p>\n

Hochul appears to be relying on getting federal permission to tap into a massive $9.6 billion pile of cash sitting in a state trust fund to help pay for people\u2019s essential plan benefits for roughly two years.<\/p>\n

Under the Trump administration policy, the state can no longer support non-residents with federal dollars, however a state court ruling mandates the state provide health insurance coverage of some sort to many of them. That will force them onto Medicaid, with the state estimating costs of doing so of around $3 billion.<\/p>\n

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie<\/a> acknowledged how serious the feds\u2019 leverage over the decision is on New York\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

The plan could be halted from receiving federal funding due to the large portion of residents on the \u201cEssential Plan\u201d being non-US citizens. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201cIf not, we have a really big problem,\u201d Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) told reporters Wednesday, asked about the state relying on federal approval to tap into the trust fund, which accumulated from federal dollars being pumped into the essential plan in recent years.<\/p>\n

Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, reached as he attended the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, declined to weigh in on the situation. His press shop didn\u2019t comment when reached Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York\u2019s Medicaid spending is off the charts,\u201d said Chris Pope, Senior Fellow for Health Care policy at the Manhattan Institute.<\/p>\n

He said New York was the most aggressive state in expanding Medicaid and public health insurance going back to the Obama era, and is now paying the price with the Republicans in control of Congress and the White House looking to rein in spending.<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul has been relying on getting the federal government to tap into $9.6 billion from a state trust fund to help pay for people\u2019s essential plan benefits. Hans Pennink for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York was in the crosshairs for overspending,\u201d Pope added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis budget does nothing to change New York\u2019s outlier status. In fact, it\u2019s probably going to make it worse,\u201d Hammond said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all of the alarms that were raised about how drastically H.R. one was going to slash funding for New York, Medicaid funding<\/a> is due to go up, not down, in the year ahead,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Jensen said he thinks the state needs to take a real \u201cforensic look\u201d at Medicaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very expansive system where we cover probably a lot of things that other states aren\u2019t,\u201d Assemblyman Josh Jensen (R-Monroe), the top GOP member on the Assembly Health Committee said.<\/p>\n

Jensen said he\u2019s open to tapping into the trust fund if it means keeping costs reduced for those on the essential plan currently, but he\u2019s been kept mostly in the dark on the governor\u2019s plans, even as she\u2019s supposedly appealing to Republicans for help convincing their colleagues in Washington to lessen the pain on the Empire State\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat continues to be an open question,\u201d Jensen said.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s office and the Department of Health refused to answer questions from The Post about how it intended to proceed with the essential plan. Hochul spokesperson Nicolette Simmonds however provided a statement bashing Trump and Republicans, apparently forgetting who needs to approve the state\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Governor will continue to fight back against these devastating cuts,\u00a0but real people will lose coverage due to the heartless decisions by Trump and New York\u2019s seven Republicans in Congress,\u201d the governors\u2019 spokesperson wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s budget proposal includes a massive boost to Medicaid spending that\u2019s already dramatically outpacing other states…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7739,48723,426,57,9,24,11,10,49,51,50,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-108057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-dr-oz","10":"tag-kathy-hochul","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-new-york-state","17":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","18":"tag-new-york-state-news","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}