NY healthcare workers protest proposed state budget
Nurses across New York have staged a walkout in protest of Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget, saying it does not adequately address the state’s healthcare needs. FOX 5 NY’s Jessica Formoso breaks down what the healthcare workers want to see changed.
“The issue with the budget is that she’s making cuts into Medicaid and Medicare which pretty much funds a lot of the hospital” Nurse Kimberly Garcia, New York Presbyterian.
NEW YORK – Thousands of healthcare workers across New York state staged a walk out rally Wednesday afternoon to protest Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposed budget.
Outside New York Presbyterian in Washington Heights, about two dozen healthcare workers banged on pots and pans demanding the Governor not make cuts to healthcare.
Most of the state is already facing budget cuts, with NYC set to make its third round of reductions Mayor Eric Adams has ordered his commissioners to carry out.
Healthcare workers are asking the governor to invest $2.5 billion more into the 2024 healthcare budget.
According to their union 1199SEIU, the budget right now includes cuts of $700 million from safety net hospitals and reverses course on a major victory last year raising the pay of home care workers to $3 above the minimum wage.
They claim the increases that are included in the governors proposed budget are offset by cuts.
RELATED: Thousands of nurses at 2 NYC hospitals on strike
Nurses walk the picket line outside Mount Sinai Hospital at Madison Ave. and 99th St. in the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Jan. 9, 2023. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"The issue with the budget is that she's making cuts into Medicaid and Medicare which pretty much funds a lot of the hospitals that is needed for us to do quality care for our patients, right? So when you make those cuts it pretty much impacts the way we care for our patients which is diagnostic testing or testing at all, so what we need her to do is invest 10% into the hospitals and also 20% into the nursing homes to secure our budgeting to take care of our patients," said Kimberly Garcia, a nurse at New York Presbyterian.
Fox 5 reached out to the governor’s office but as of now we have not heard back.