New York’s congressional delegation challenged the distribution of funds in the federal stimulus package, saying that the formula was wrong.
As of Friday, 35 percent of the nation’s COVID-19 cases and 42 percent of the deaths have occurred in New York. But the federal government is distributing aid to hospitals based on Medicare formulas.
Led by U.S. Reps. Tom Suozzi and Peter King, R-Seaford and Elliot Engel, D-Bronx, the New York delegation wrote Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma asking for New York’s hospitals to be to be prioritized for funding.
Florida, California and Texas, all with far lower rates of infection and death, got more money from the first distribution of the $30 billion stimulus package. New York is getting $1.86 billion.
“As Members of the New York Congressional Delegation who represent the state most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we strongly urge you to reconsider your decision on how to allocate vital funding to hospitals,” the letter said. “Despite the disproportionate scale of the COVID-19 crisis in New York, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has apparently chosen not to give New York priority when distributing funding appropriated by Congress as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.”