Time runs short to decide New York healthcare cuts

New York Times, February 22, 2008

In 2007, when hospital groups and healthcare unions resisted New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's $1.3 billion cut in health services, he ran a television commercial assailing them. The healthcare advocates responded with their own ads that defied Spitzer. Now Spitzer is again proposing healthcare spending cuts, but both sides are trying to behave. Spitzer's new plan calls for the biggest changes in the way hospitals are reimbursed for Medicaid expenses in more than two decades. He would eliminate $980 million in Medicaid and other healthcare expenses to help narrow New York's budget deficit.