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Cuomo said that healthcare funding for New York which was previously granted in 2014 had been canceled by the president’s administration.
The $8 billion was earmarked to allow the state to transition healthcare services from primarily hospital driven to more of a community-based healthcare system.
“If there's one area that you'd think should be beyond politics, it's healthcare,” Cuomo said. “And what the federal government is doing is hurting Democrats and Republicans, it's not whether you're blue or you're red. These are needy New Yorkers, they're primarily senior citizens, who are hurt.
“We fought all of these cuts all along, but we're going to fight this cut. I'm going to contact our congressional delegation. We're going to marshal all our allies because it's unconscionable.
"There has to be a place where you doing play politics. It has to end somewhere. It should end at healthcare. Why you would want to play politics with someone's healthcare is just beyond me. They have no limits whatsoever.”
Cuomo said that the cancellation of the grant will cost New York approximately $600 million this year, which will be funded through the Medicaid program.
“In and of itself, it is very counterproductive and hurtful to this State, but when you view it in the series that are going on it is even more disturbing,” he added. “Because this is not just the federal government takes an isolated action that is hurting the state.
"There is continued pattern and series of these actions. Connect the dots and you see the line.
“I have never seen government run through a self-serving political lens like this. But that is what it is.
"My point is that at one point it has to stop. And the line in the sand has to be healthcare.”
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