Nick Langworthy
Congressmen Nick Langworthy and Marc Molinaro are leading the charge against Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2024 state budget proposal to clawback Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Program (eFMAP) funds.
These are funds designated for counties and local governments and the proposed clawback could result in up to $1 billion in new Medicaid costs for those municipalities.
According to a press release sent out by Senator Chuck Schumer in March 2020 about the bipartisan Coronavirus bill that was passed by Congress, FMAP is a matching rate enacted in 1965 that determines the federal funding share for state Medicaid programs. The federal government matches state funds spent on Medicaid, based on the state’s FMAP, which varies by state.
For example, New York’s FMAP is 50%. This means that for every dollar spent on Medicaid in New York, New York’s share of the cost is fifty cents (this fifty cents, in turn, is split between the State and Counties and localities), while the federal government chips in the other fifty cents. Schumer’s efforts increased the federal share of New York’s Medicaid program to 56.2 percent, thereby dropping the state’s share to 43.8 percent. This delivers more federal dollars immediately to the state and localities, to the tune of more than $6B annually.
In the breakdown of what counties could expect to receive as a result of that legislation in 2020, and, thus, what they are expected to lose due to the clawback by the Governor, is as follows for local counties:
– Allegany County: $1.97 million
– Cattaraugus County: $3.35 million
– Chautauqua County: $6.24 million
– Erie County: $41.66 million
Langworthy and Molinaro said the diversion of these funds will force municipalities to raise property taxes and drastically cut services. Together, with other members of the New York delegation, they sent a letter imploring the governor to reverse her decision that will have grave consequences for communities across the state.
Their letter stated, “Your decision to divert the necessary local support from eFMAP will force our state’s local governments to shoulder the shortfall. This will lead to a reduction in access for the very services that eFMAP is intended to support, leading to harm for the most vulnerable.. Other localities could be forced to raise property taxes.”
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