Monday, January 5, 2009, 2:48pm EST Poll: New Yorkers prefer higher taxes to Medicaid cuts The Business Review (Albany) - by Adam Sichko
A new poll shows that registered voters in New York appear willing to pay higher taxes in order to prevent spending cuts in the state’s massive Medicaid program.
Almost 80 percent of voters in the poll, published Jan. 2, opposed cuts in state Medicaid spending. In a separate question, voters rejected cuts in overall health care spending by a margin greater than 6:1.
A top health care lobby in Albany that paid for the poll is touting its results as the state Legislature prepares to debate spending cuts and new taxes on health care providers that Gov. David Paterson has asked for. Paterson has proposed the moves as one way to help the state erase a record-high $15.4 billion deficit over the next 15 months.
“The public, by a solid majority, disagrees with the governor’s plan to make such huge cuts to health care services,” declared Daniel Sisto, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State. The trade group represents 550 non-profit and public health care facilities in the state.
“Voters clearly understand the financial squeeze under which hospitals and other health care providers are forced to operate,” Sisto added.
The association paid the Siena Research Institute, part of Siena College in Loudonville, to administer the poll. The poll of 794 voters was conducted between Nov. 6-12, a month before Paterson released his proposed budget for the state’s 2009-10 fiscal year.
The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
William Van Slyke, a spokesman for the association, declined to say how much the group paid for the poll.
“The questions had to be structured in a way that met their [Siena’s] standards, which are very high standards,” Van Slyke said. “They obviously have a reliable operation [at Siena].”
Health care groups have been slamming the $3.6 billion in spending cuts and new taxes that Paterson has asked for from the health care sector in his proposed budget.
The state spends more on health care than any other item. Paterson’s budget increases overall Medicaid spending by 1 percent, to $45.4 billion.
That’s roughly $10 billion more than any other state spends on Medicaid. Paterson’s budget means New York would spend $2,283 per capita on Medicaid, almost twice as much as any other state.
In one poll question, 71 percent of voters said the state should tax health insurance companies to help close the budget deficit, while 17 percent said the state should instead cut health care spending. The balance had no opinion or didn’t answer the question.
They must have polled medicaid recipients only. I'm just shaking my head in disbelief here!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Survey participants were told the state faces a $2 billion deficit in the current fiscal year and a $12 billion deficit in the next fiscal year. They were told that health care accounts for the largest portion of the state budget and education the second largest portion. They were then given four choices and asked which best describes how they feel. Sixteen percent said cut spending to both health care and education. One in ten voters said cut spending to education but not health care, while 6% said cut spending to health care but not education. The vast majority (63%), however, said New York should not cut spending to either health care or education, even if it means raising taxes.
Additionally, according to the poll, a plurality of voters, 37%, say New York spends too little on Medicaid, compared to 22% who say too much is spent. One in five voters thinks New York spends about the right amount of money on Medicaid. The poll also found that, by a margin of 49% to 33%, New Yorkers have a favorable view of the Medicaid system in New York.
How about instead of a poll they do a comparison between health-care, education as well as welfare paid by NYS taxpayers to the rest of the states in this country and see how much more NYS already pays.
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