Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s big push to rein in an explosive Medicaid program is proving a giveaway \u2014 at taxpayers expense, \u2018natch \u2014 to one of New York\u2019s most insatiable unions, 1199 SEIU.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s technically not one of the public-sector unions that wield enormous political power<\/a> in blue states, since 1199 members mainly work for private-sector hospitals, but the huge amount of government spending on health care (especially in New York) makes 1199 Service Employees International Union behaving much the same way. <\/p>\n And 1199 is about to grow its ranks massively thanks to a hare-brained 2024 \u201creform\u201d Hochul pushed through<\/a> in the name of fighting fraud in the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, under the state pays family members of disabled Medicaid recipients to provide home care.<\/p>\n After we and others flagged<\/a> how loose eligibility rules and other issues had led to a 1,200% spike in CDPAP enrollment, soaring fraud and outlays of $11 billion, the gov used public outrage<\/a> to pass a reform she vowed would rein in the program.<\/p>\n Yet her \u201csolution\u201d was simply to hire a single company, Public Partnerships, to centralize payments to these aides \u2014 which now lets them legally count as PPL employees, and so qualified to unionize.<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Or, more accurately, be targeted for unionization by 1199.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the Empire Center\u2019s Bill Hammond publicized a letter notifying \u201chome health aides\u201d they\u2019ll soon be able \u201cto decide whether to form a union and join 1199SEIU.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA campaign by 1199 SEIU to organize roughly a quarter-million home health aides,\u201d Hammond warns, \u201chas begun in earnest.\u201d<\/p>\n The new members could swell the union\u2019s already 450,000-strong rank and file by more than 50% \u2014 ballooning not just its membership rolls, but its political influence and dues revenue.<\/p>\n And with all that new power and money, this behemoth \u2014 which already spends millions on political campaigns each year \u2014 will have Albany even more at its beck and call.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n When the union demands higher wages and better benefits for its members, lawmakers will jump and ask, How much? <\/p>\n And overwhelmingly at taxpayer expense.<\/p>\n Ditto for all the politically progressive issues the union backs that have nothing to do with health-care workers\u2019 compensation.<\/p>\n The biggest obscenity, of course, is how Hochul\u2019s effort to (supposedly) prevent fraud morphed into this massive gift to 1199.<\/p>\n On the one hand, federal investigators are probing<\/a> alleged bid-rigging in the awarding of the single-payer contract to PPL.<\/p>\n