Healthcare workers, leaders and their advocates rallied March 5 against proposed state budget cuts outside the New York Capitol, the Times Union reported.
Lawmakers were called to restore $550 million cut from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's original budget.
The governor had pledged to increase Medicaid payment to hospitals by 2 percent and to nursing homes by 1.5 percent, according to Crain's New York Business. But last month he revealed a revised budget that cut healthcare spending by $550 million.
Overall, the budget reportedly reduced funding to hospitals by about $650 million in the upcoming fiscal year.
State Budget Director Robert Mujica told Crain's in February that the spending cut was because of lower expected tax revenue.
"These are budget-driven cuts that are coming from Washington and that have come to roost here in Albany," Bea Grause, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State, told the Times Union. "And we need our elected leaders to know that we are not going to take it and we are going to push back on these cuts."
Members of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East also rallied against the budget cuts March 5 at Columbia University Irving Medical Centerin New York City, according to a union news release.
Union protests also are planned March 6 at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., and March 7 in New Hyde Park, N.Y.
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