GOP Rep. Lawler Clashes with Joe Scarborough Over Medicaid Cuts in OBBB: ‘If You’d Stop Putting Words in My Mouth and Let Me Answer...’

SCARBOROUGH: “Well, respectfully, Mike, the Congressional Budget Office, which obviously is a part of the institution where you serve, says that there’s going to be about. 900 billion to $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. If you look at the hospitals in your own district, Montefiore Nyack Hospital is already saying, because of that vote, because of these cuts, they’re going to have to cut back services, they’re going to have to cut staff, they’re going to have to cut care. Same thing with Westchester Hospital. Hospitals across your district are going to have to cut services and care and staff members and budgets because of your vote and because of this bill that passes. That’s what they’re saying. It’s not some left-wing focus group or some — “
LAWLER: “Respectfully, I’ve met with — “
SCARBOROUGH: “Well, I’m just telling you what they — what they’ve said. And so — “
LAWLER: “No, what they’re — what they’re parroting — what they’re parroting is the same talking points being put out by the state and by the hospital association — “
SCARBOROUGH: “So they’re parroting they — what, you know their business better than — you know their business better than they know their business? Congressman, you can keep talking if you want to, but are you saying that they know — you know their business, you know doctors’ business, you know, hospital administrators’ business better than they know their own business? Is that what you’re telling us here?”
LAWLER: “No, Joe. If you’d stop putting words in my mouth and let me answer the question, number one — “
SCARBOROUGH: “You said they were parroting. You said that actually they were having the words put into their mouth. You said — you said they were parroting other people’s words!”
LAWLER: “Go look what they’ve actually put out, and it’s all the same. It’s all the same points that the Greater New York Hospital Association and that the state of New York are parroting. But the bottom line is, and I’ve met with all of them, they have had significant challenges because of the way the state has managed the Medicaid system in New York. Montefiore Nyack is a safety net hospital. 85% of its funding comes from Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements. The state has cut them off for years, refusing to give them the funding that they need through various programs and instead telling them, ‘Go to your parent. Montefiore health system, based out of The Bronx.’ So we can get into the challenges that Montefiore Nyack or Westchester Medical Center are facing. Many of them stem from the fact that the state has mismanaged its Medicaid system for years. Okay? So I’m more than happy to have that discussion. I’ve had it with the CEOs of both Montefiore Nyack and Westchester Medical. We fought in this bill to help Westchester Medical with respect to state-directed payments, because the state failed to submit the state-directed payment in time. So I was able to secure a change within the bill to help them.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Okay, so you’re saying — you’re saying then — again, and I’m not putting words in your mouth, you say they’re just parroting other people’s words, they don’t really know what they’re talking about when they’re talking about how your vote hurt their hospitals, that it’s actually Kathy Hochul’s fault? Is that — is that the bottom line, before we get on to redistricting?”
LAWLER: “What I’m saying, Joe, is they’re all parroting the same line from the state of New York and Greater New York Hospital Association. But when you actually drill down on the specifics, many of the challenges that our hospital systems in New York have faced actually stem from the decisions made by New York State over the past few years. New York has the most expansive Medicaid program in the country. Okay? Medicaid growth year over year, it’s going to be about 3% per year. Medicaid over the next 10 years is going to grow by 24%. So this notion that Medicaid is being gutted is not true, number one. Number two, there is going to be continued growth within the system. New York needs to do a better job of actually managing its Medicaid dollars.”