Governor Releases Book Detailing Policy Agenda

Late last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo released his policy blueprint for a second term. The 245-page document Moving the New New York Forward recaps his achievements in several areas and identifies over 60 proposals the Governor hopes to implement if he is re-elected. Promoting health innovation and increasing access to affordable housing are among the identified proposals:

• Enact the State Health Innovation Plan (SHIP): It is time to align the entire health care system, including private insurance, to further improve quality, keep costs low, and improve the health of all New Yorkers. SHIP will ensure that every New Yorker has access to high quality primary care in every region of the state, within five years. We will also work with payers to assure that health care costs do not soar and care is affordable to all.

• Create More Affordable Housing: Expand New York’s $1 billion affordable housing commitment supplementing it with additional funding from legal settlements.

Other proposals of possible interest to LeadingAge NY members include: (1) further raising the State’s minimum wage, which is currently $8.00 per hour and slated to increase to $8.75 per hour as of Dec. 31, 2014; (2) creating an Office of Faith-Based Community to assist community faith-based organizations in providing education, health, workforce training, food programs and social services to communities in need; and (3) extending the local property tax cap, which sunsets in 2015.

Among the health care achievements identified in the policy book are: (1) securing federal approval of the $8 billion Medicaid Redesign Team waiver; (2) launching the New York Health Benefit Exchange, which has helped almost 1.6 million uninsured New Yorkers access health care coverage; (3) recovering, through the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General, over $851 million in 2013, the highest Medicaid recovery in the nation; (4) investing $300 million since 2012 in supportive housing; and (5) securing $55 million in funding for the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY).

Some of the proposals identified in the book have already been announced by Cuomo in recent weeks, including plans for a new infrastructure bank, a $500 million fund to encourage local governments to consolidate services and new overseas trade missions.

Contact: Dan Heim, dheim@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8866