$15 minimum wage to cost taxpayers an extra $838M for Medicaid
http://nypost.com/2016/11/17/15-minimum-wage-to-cost-taxpayers-an-extra-838m-for-medicaid/
November 17, 2016
The $15 minimum wage is going to end up costing New York taxpayers an extra $838 million a year in Medicaid payments by 2020 — double what the Cuomo administration estimated.
According to the mid-year state budget, taxpayers will shoulder an additional $44 million next year when wages for home health care aides, orderlies and other low-paid medical workers contracted with Medicaid increase from $9 to $11 an hour.
Officials originally estimated the first year would add just $13 million to the state budget.
When wages are eventually hiked to $15 by 2020, the extra cost will reach a staggering $838 million a year — more than double the $411 million officials originally estimated.
The fiscal bombshell can be found in two paragraphs on page 81 of the 391-page budget, released Monday.
It dryly reads: “Minimum wage initiatives, inclusive of revised forecast assumptions, are expected to increase annual Medicaid spending above statutory Global Cap limits by $44 million in FY 2017; $255 million in FY 2018; $579 million in FY 2019; and $838 million in FY 2020.”
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(New York. And so predictable. Article does continue. Zim.)
Mad Poet Strikes Again.
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