WPCNR'S ADAM IN ALBANY. By District 89 Assemblyman Adam Bradley. October 9, 2003: Medicaid has increasingly placed a serious financial burden on Westchester taxpayers. To help ease that burden, my colleagues and I in the Assembly plan to forgive $7.3 million in Medicaid-related debt that Westchester County owes the state – primarily for rehabilitation services provided to residents of certified community residences.

The Assembly and Senate recently reached a bi-partisan agreement on providing this much-needed relief. The Assembly plans to pass this legislation on Wednesday to relieve counties across New York of $172 million in previously owed Medicaid debt. For Westchester County, the Medicaid relief will mean a savings of over $7.3 million.

While the legislation is one small step in reducing the Medicaid burden on local taxpayers, there is still more to be done.

We have an obligation to provide citizens with access to quality health care. Too often, devastating health care cuts are pushed in the name of ‘reform.’ We must do everything we can to ease the fiscal burden on local taxpayers without the false choice of cutting costs by eliminating health care for the must vulnerable among us.