Watch the full interview with Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay on this weekend's edition of New York NOW, either on your local PBS station or on the free PBS app.
A panel convened by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to find $2.5 billion in Medicaid savings this month won’t have direct input from Republicans in the state Legislature, a fact that Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay bemoaned in an interview this week.
Barclay, speaking in an interview to air this weekend on New York NOW, criticized Cuomo for leaving Republicans unrepresented on the panel, called the Medicaid Redesign Team.
“We do have ideas on how we can cut the cost of Medicaid moving forward,” Barclay said.
The Medicaid Redesign Team was formed by Cuomo earlier this year to identify $2.5 billion in Medicaid savings by the end of March. It’s part of Cuomo’s plan to avoid a projected $6.1 billion budget deficit this year.
The panel includes representatives from the health care industry, officials from state government, a few outliers, and two senior staff members who report directly to Democrats in the State Senate and Assembly. Democrats hold the majority in both chambers.
But absent on the Medicaid Redesign Team is any staff who report directly to Republicans, who hold the minority in the Senate and Assembly.
Barclay said he isn’t against the Medicaid Redesign Team, but feels Republicans have been overlooked in discussions on how to solve the state’s fiscal woes. That’s not unusual for state government — parties in the minority are often shut out of larger negotiations.
“The Medicaid Redesign Team is fine, but why not put legislative representation on there — why not put minority legislative representation on it, because, again, we may be able to provide ideas they haven’t thought of,” Barclay said.
Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state Division of Budget, pushed back on Barclay’s characterization of the Medicaid Redesign Team, saying the panel has representation from the Legislature and is accepting proposals from anyone willing to provide them.
“Let’s set aside the obvious partisan politics and stick to the facts: The MRT represents a broad spectrum of the health care industry, includes representation from the legislature and is inviting everyone’s proposals as it works to reduce Medicaid spending growth by $2.5 billion in the same way the first MRT implemented reforms that kept New York’s Medicaid spending growth to less than half the national average,” Klopott said.
Barclay, speaking on New York NOW, also criticized the time crunch lawmakers are expected to be placed under this month after the Medicaid Redesign Team issues its recommendations. That report is anticipated in the coming weeks.
That will give lawmakers a short window to review the panel’s findings and decide how to incorporate them into this year’s state budget, which is due at the end of the month.
“How much time is that going to give us to be able to review what their recommendations are and then institute them in the budget?” Barclay said. “It seems not really the appropriate way to be addressing that issue.”
Some Democrats have expressed similar concerns, saying changes to Medicaid may be necessary, but that they want to review the Medicaid Redesign Team’s final recommendations before announcing their support.
Klopott said the time frame is not unlike negotiations on the state budget from any other year. Cuomo and lawmakers routinely agree on a final spending plan in a matter of weeks.
“In each of the last nine years, this administration and the legislature have negotiated $170 billion budgets within about six weeks for a timely enactment, and the work of the MRT is no different,” Klopott said.