The New York State Legislature passed an on-time, $121 billion State budget for the fiscal year starting April 1, 2007, which restores most of the funding cuts to hospitals and nursing homes that were contained in Governor Eliot Spitzer's original budget proposal. GNYHA is extremely grateful to Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and the Senate majority, who were supportive throughout the budget debate and passed a budget resolution earlier this month that restored all of the Governor's proposed funding cuts to hospitals and nursing homes. GNYHA is equally grateful to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the Assembly Democratic Majority, who worked very hard with the Governor to secure more restorations for NYC hospitals.

• Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Executive Budget for State Fiscal Year 2007-08

• “Patients First: An Agenda to Fundamentally Reform New York’s Health Care System" 30.3 KB (Governor Eliot Spitzer, January 25, 2007)
  • Governor Spitzer’s Health Care Speech 75.0 KB (ML-24, January 24, 2007)
  • Setting the Record Straight: A Response to Governor Spitzer’s January 26th Health Care Speech 63.6 KB (Healthcare Education Project (HEP)—a joint initiative of GNYHA and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East)  
  • Shared Responsibility: A Prescription for Comprehensive Health Care Reform in New York State 3.0 MB (HEP)
    • Executive Summary 148 KB

• Governor Eliot Spitzer's State of the State Address 146 KB (January 3, 2007)
  • Governor Spitzer’s State of the State Address 730 KB (ML-2, January 3, 2007)
  • GNYHA—1199 SEIU Healthcare Education Project: "The Facts About New York’s Medicaid Program" 55.6 KB
  • GNYHA—1199 SEIU Healthcare Education Project: "Medicaid Facts" PowerPoint Presentation 22.9 KB
  •  For more information about GNYHA’s Medicaid reform advocacy efforts, click here.

• New York State Budget Passed (Skyline News, April 2, 2007)
• Final New York State Budget Agreement 92.4 KB (ML-62, April 2, 2007)
• NYS Senate, Assembly Release Budget Proposals 60.2 KB (ML-53, March 12, 2007)
• Macro-Economic Analysis of New York’s Medicaid Program 141 KB (ML-52, March 9, 2007)
• GNYHA/1199 Meet with NY Congressional Delegation 59.6 KB (ML-50, March 8, 2007)
• Letter to Hospital CEOs from Governor Spitzer 290 KB (ML-48, March 6, 2007)
• Response to Governor Spitzer’s ABNY Speech 2.6 MB (ML-46, March 5, 2007)
• Invitation to Friday, March 9, 2007, Budget Briefings for Brooklyn and Manhattan New York City Elected Officials 49.9 KB (ML-45, March 2, 2007)
• Healthcare Education Project Releases Report Finding that New York State’s Budget Is Balanced 306 KB (ML-43, February 26, 2007)
  • Forecasting Accuracy 188 KB (Edward M. Cupoli, Ph.D.)
• Healthcare Education Project Launches Statewide Campaign to Fight Governor Spitzer's Health Care Cuts 580 KB (ML-41, February 22, 2007)
• New York State Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2007-2008 1.3 MB (GNYHA PowerPoint Presentation, February 14, 2007)
• GNYHA Testifies in Albany on Governor Spitzer’s Proposed State Budget 302 KB (ML-40, February 13, 2007)
  • February 13, 2007: Testimony of Kenneth E. Raske, President, Greater New York Hospital Association, on the Executive Budget for 2007-08 Before the New York State Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees 250 KB
• Resources to Help Fight Governor Spitzer’s Proposed Budget Cuts 253 KB (ML-36, February 8, 2007)
  • Sample Letter 11.9 KB
  • Talking Points 39.6 KB
• Governor Spitzer Proposes Medicaid Cuts 120 KB (ML-29, Januray 31, 2007)

• Healthcare Education Project Estimates That Berger Commission, Governor Spitzer's Proposed Cuts Will Eliminate More Than 36, 000 Hospital, Nursing Home, and Other Jobs 44.8 KB (HEP Press Release, February 28, 2007)

• Estimated Job Loss from Hospital and Nursing Home Closings and from State Reimbursement Actions 10.4 KB

• 10 Reasons Why Cutting Medicaid is Wrong for New York: 115 KB HEP's Response to Governor Spitzer's Proposed Health Care Cuts

• Why the Legislature Should "Put Patients First" by Rejecting the Proposed Health Care Cuts
  • Reason #1 43.0 KB:  Governor Spitzer says he wants to shift funding from ”institutions” to patients, but his budget puts only $10.6 million toward covering 400,000 uninsured children while slashing $1.3 billion in health care programs.
  • Reason #2 144 KB:  Governor Spitzer says he wants to go after “entrenched interests,” but his budget slashes funding for New York’s community providers while leaving billions of dollars in excess profits for the ultimate entrenched interests—HMOs—untouched.
  • Reason #3 42.4 KB:  President Bush’s budget cuts $1.2 billion from New York’s hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies. Rather than pursuing another $1 billion in State cuts, Governor Spitzer should join with the New York Congressional delegation and protect New Yorker’s from Bush’s budget.
  • Reason #4 44.1 KB:  Governor Spitzer sends $1.2 billion back to Washington, DC, funding that New York needs to “put patients first.”
  • Reason #5 45.7 KB:  Governor Spitzer says his budget puts patients first, but his health care cuts deeply compromise the enormous amount of primary care that hospitals provide to New York's families and communities.
  • Reason #6 43.6 KB:  Governor Spitzer says his budget puts patients first, but his proposed nursing home cuts would threaten the quality and availability of vital long term care services.

• Union's TV Blitz Socks Gov Rating (New York Post, 3-12-07)
• Medicaid Costs Can Be in Eye of the Crusader (New York Times, 3-11-07)
• Hospitals Demand Spending Priorities Not Funding Cuts (Press Republican, 3-6-07) 
• Spitzer Medicaid Plan Faulted (Poughkeepsie Journal, 3-6-07)
• Health Workers Take Shot at Spitzer (Democrat and Chronicle, 2-27-07)
• Local Labor Groups Criticize Spitzer’s Proposed Cuts (NBC-10 WHEC Rochester, 2-26-07)
• Radical Surgery: Combined State and Federal Cuts Could Cripple Hospitals (The Post-Standard, 2-16-07)
• Bush and Spitzer Bleed City Hospitals (The New York Observer, 2-12-07)
• Bush’s and Spitzer’s Budgets Hit New York Hospitals Hard (New York Times, 2-5-07)