Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the legislature needs to cut $2.5 billion from the Medicaid budget because there isn't enough money. To do this he appointed a Medicaid Redesign Team to look for inefficiencies and places to cut. It's actually the second team created to do this, the first was in 2011, so it goes by the awkward handle "MRT2." Last week, the team held a hearing requesting public comment and gave the public less than 24-hours notice. That meant many disabled people who have to call Access-a-Ride more than 24 hours in advance couldn't be there. This was probably intentional as you can see above because Medicaid cuts harm people and provoke protests. The protests would have been larger and probably uglier if more people had come. Ability Fierce was there and this week's episode gives you a sense of the what went down and the urgency of the issue.
As always, you can watch this week's episode at:
Sunday night Feb. 23 at 8:00 p.m. on Brooklyn Free Speech Channel 3
In Brooklyn it appears on: Spectrum 1996 Optimum 69 RCN 84
Across NYC it appears on: Verizon 44
Around the globe (via live stream): BRICartsmeida.org/3
You can also catch the YouTube premiere Monday night Feb 24 at 8:00 p.m.
And while you're there please SUBSCRIBE!!! Really, I'm not kidding it's very important. Also if you love Ability Fierce please visit our Patreon page: www.patreon.com/abilityfierce