LANCASTER, NY (WKBW) — The fight over money for Medicaid is at the center of the big-picture funding fight in Washington, D.C.
Republicans say they'll only cut waste, fraud, and abuse. But the nonpartisan congressional budget office backs up Democrats that the savings as outlined by the GOP will impact healthcare.
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer is spreading a message to our region that cuts to Medicaid would devastate health care throughout Western New York.
“A lot of people do depend on it, and I will shortly,” said Eileen Wirth a resident at GreenFields Health.
Wirth has been living at GreenFields Health in Lancaster for more than three years and expects to go on Medicaid soon.
“It's hard and I know that there's a couple of people here that would really like to have a peaceful mind,” Wirth noted.
Schumer greeted a large crowd of residents and employees at the center, appearing a week after congressional Republicans voted to cut $880 billion from Medicaid.
The senator said that without Medicaid, thousands of Western New York seniors could be forced out of health care centers because they won't have the money to stay.
“It would blow a crater through health care throughout Western New York,” said Schumer. “We cannot let this Medicaid budget bomb go under the radar.”
I received a statement from Republican Congressman Nick Langworthy, who said in part, Schumer is “lying” — and he claims there will be no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or social security benefits.
Langworthy also said they're trying to “root out” waste, fraud and abuse, and if Schumer really cared about seniors, he would be “fighting the billions lost every year to fraud."
“Chuck Schumer is lying—and he knows it. The Democrats are once again resorting to shameless fear-mongering because their extreme agenda has been overwhelmingly rejected by the American people. President Trump and Speaker Johnson have made it crystal clear: there will be no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits. But we will root out the waste, fraud, and abuse that threaten the survival of these critical programs. If Schumer really cared about seniors, he’d be fighting the billions lost every year to fraud—not spreading lies to score cheap political points. Western New York’s seniors deserve the truth, not scare tactics.”
But Schumer responded to accusations of fraud within the program.
"They haven't shown any evidence of that, I’d like them to come here and say who shouldn't be here,” Schumer pointed to the crowd of seniors living at the center. “You know that's horrible, cruel to do, and they've given no documentation for this. They just say it.”
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, also a Democrat, joined Schumer Wednesday in Lancaster.
“So, the argument that there's tens of thousands in Erie County or millions nationwide who don't qualify is without merit because governments are required to review that,” Poloncarz stated.
Poloncarz also said he took a good look at the Medicaid numbers, finding 36 percent here in Erie County rely on it.
“We're talking about stripping away people's healthcare coverage, for what?" Poloncarz said. "A cut for billionaires. A tax cut for billionaires – that’s what this is all about. From infants to our oldest residents, it is the largest health care coverage organization of any in our community.”
I asked Wirth what her message is to those in Washington trying to make the cuts.
“Just listen to the people and everybody else should call in and do stuff – all of us here,” she said.
