Hochul decries federal cuts to child health program

Oct. 12--Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul paid a visit to Lockport on Wednesday where she delivered a message about the potential impact of federal cuts on health care for children living in Western New York.

Echoing comments made in a statement released by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hochul called on Congress to reauthorize the Child Health Insurance Plan, which she said impacts 17,790 in the Niagara region.

The program, more commonly known as Child Health Plus, serves as a safety gap for families that do not qualify for Medicaid, but can't afford other insurance coverage.

In failing to reauthorize the plan by Oct. 1, Hochul said Congress slashed roughly $1 billion in funding for New York and, in the process, jeopardized health care for millions of children across the country, including 350,000 young people in Western New York.

Hochul discussed the situation during a visit to John E. Pound Elementary School on High Street on Wednesday.

"New York's health care system is under assault by the federal government, and our children and the most vulnerable among us are their targets," she said. "We must tell our representatives in Washington to restore funding for the Child Health Insurance Plan and Federally Qualified Health Centers and not to abandon our fellow New Yorkers. Enough is enough. Congress needs to stop playing politics over people's lives."

Cuomo's office said failure to renew the Health Centers Program by Oct. 1 will cut $138 million in federal funding for New York's 650 federally qualified health center sites. Cuomo's office indicated that health centers provide high quality care to 2 million New Yorkers, including the vast majority of care for people underinsured in this state. Indeed, many of the children covered by CHIP use these FQHCs for primary care. Cuomo and Hochul said the crippling federal cuts will impact all 650 sites in the state.

"It is unconscionable that the federal government is implementing draconian health care cuts that target our children and the most vulnerable among us," Cuomo said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "This is not a partisan issue, and the stakes are too high to continue to play petty politics. I call on Congress to renew these essential health care programs, and I urge all New Yorkers to make their voices heard and tell their representatives to protect our health care."

CHIP targets families up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level--or a family of three with an income of about $82,000. It started as the Child Health Plus health insurance plan under Gov. Mario Cuomo before becoming a national program that serves millions of children across the nation who may not otherwise have access to health coverage.

New York's Child Health Plus includes preventative care such as routine checkups, immunizations, doctor visits, prescription coverage, as well as dental and vision care. Andrew Cuomo suggested New York's Child Health Plus program has been tremendously successful, helping to reduce of the number of uninsured children by 85 percent, from 700,000 in 1996, to 100,000 in 2017. To continue Child Health Plus without federal funding would cost New York State taxpayers more than $1 billion, according to the governor's office.

At the direction of Cuomo, New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker has issued a letter to the Acting Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Eric Hargan warning that New York cannot continue the current Child Health Plus program without federal funding. Commissioner Zucker said that if Congress fails to renew funding for the program in the next few weeks, Cuomo will have no choice but to call a special session of the Legislature.

"This Congress is again placing dollar signs before vital signs and putting hundreds of thousands of New York children, and millions of low-income residents, in danger," Zucker said.

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