Engel Scores for New York in Health Bill's Final Days

It’s not exactly clear how it happened, but in the eleven days between when Eliot Engel announced he wasn’t a guaranteed “yes” on the health care reform bill, and the day it passed Congress, the bill seems to have become dramatically better for New Yorkers.

“New York was getting bupkus,” said Joseph O’Brien, Engel’s Director of Communications, from his office in the Bronx. “Now it helps states like New York — ‘do-gooder states’ — get their fair share.”

Engel, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, wrote in a March 10 editorial for the Daily News that the plan placed an unfair burden on New York. He explained:

New York has long been a leader in providing health coverage to its residents. We are a “do-gooder” state; we provide coverage to parents with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level – and to childless adults up to 100% of that level.The Senate bill’s language effectively punishes us for this generosity. It would raise the coverage level in states that have not acted as “do-gooders,” with the federal government paying 100% of the costs – while not expanding the matching rates in states such as New York. This will compound already serious budgetary problems for our state.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/03/10/2010-03-10_fix_health_bill_or_lose_my_vote.html#ixzz0jEgwtjg6

But by March 21, when the bill came before the House, Engel was comfortable delivering a yes. In the days between, Engel met with White House staff as well as Senate Democrats. Some of the language regarding how Medicare coverage will be doled out was changed, and ended up being particularly beneficial to residents of Engel’s district.

While the reform will be felt in all 50 states, the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area has a particular stake in the measure because of its demographics.

The local area has many seniors, numerous healthcare and nursing care facilities, as well as a large number of healthcare workers who live here. In addition, nearly all local businesses are small businesses, from mom-and-pop stores, to restaurants to realtors….

The bill mandates that senior citizens on the Medicare Part D plan receive some government support to cover prescription drug costs over $2,250. Previously, seniors would have to pay out of pocket for costs over that amount until they had paid a total of $5,100 for prescription drugs. The “doughnut hole” left many seniors unable to make to ends meet.

I don’t know exactly how the negotiating went down during those eleven days, but Engel is pretty sure it was his lobbying that got the changes made.

“I believe that it was due to the strong stand which I took with House leadership and the White House that led to the seemingly more equitable share of Federal Matching Assistance Percentage Funding (FMAP) funds secure for our state,” Engel said in a recent press release.

UPDATE 3:01PM: I seem to have gotten a little bit of my reporting wrong. O’Brien pointed out via email that…

It’s not only people in Rep. Engel’s district who will benefit, but New York State as a whole. What the Riverdale Press was writing about as favoring Riverdale was the ‘donut hole,’ which affects the senior population. That was another part of the health care legislation that Rep. Engel favored, but which was already in the bill and unaffected by Rep. Engel’s negotiating.