NY Healthcare CEO: Medicaid is a Lifeline and Must Be Protected

Three prominent members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus are appealing to fellow Republicans not to get in the way of making massive cuts to Medicaid — likely necessary for financing the party-line bill to enact broad swaths of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda, according to reporting by Politico.In an op-ed for Fox News on Monday, Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris and members Chip Roy and Eric Burlison argued they aren't calling for massive cuts to the safety-net health insurance program, but rather reforms that would "reverse its explosive expansion" that has left Medicaid "unsustainable."In his own op-ed for the USA Today Network, titled  “Medicaid is vital to New York and the U.S. It must be protected," Doug Wirth, the president and CEO of Amida Care, New York State’s largest Medicaid Special Needs Health Plan, shared his personal experiences with Medicaid and shared his broader views on its importance, as well as the policy implications and advocacy for protecting the program.Wirth also serves on the Association of Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) board of Directors where he chairs their Medicaid Committee.Doug Wirth appeared on Radio Chatskill.