| New York, NY — The proposed federal cuts would impact over 4 million New Yorkers on Medicaid and almost 3 million New Yorkers on SNAP |
In a legislative briefing May 14, 2025, Comptroller Brad Lander highlighted the looming threat of the Trump Administration to Medicaid and SNAP.
“Over 4 million New York City residents are enrolled in Medicaid and nearly 2 million New York City residents receive SNAP benefits in order to cover basic health care and food,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “Yet Trump and the Republican reconciliation bills aimed at hollowing out Medicaid and SNAP will go beyond their original vendettas against the unemployed and poor, ‘woke’ medicine, or undocumented immigrants—this budget hurts millions of people fighting to remain in this increasingly unaffordable city. Draconian figures like Trump have tried to gut our social safety net before, but hardworking New Yorkers and their families will remember every time they visit a hospital or go to bed hungry.”
Congress’ current plan of healthcare reductions would cut Medicaid by at least $715 billion over 10 years by:
Establishing a work requirement for Medicaid and forcing continuous eligibility/verification requirements.
Penalizes states (like New York) that use their own funds to provide health insurance for undocumented immigrants.
Prohibit Medicaid from funding gender affirming care for minors.
End reimbursement of community health programs that provide family planning and abortion services.
Comptroller Lander underscored how the proposed cuts to Medicaid would have disastrous effects on New York State and the City. During his presentation, Comptroller Lander emphasized:
35% of New Yorkers across the state get healthcare through Medicaid, one of the highest shares of any state in the country.
4 million New Yorkers are enrolled in Medicaid, with an additional 1 million on the Essential Plan.
Medicaid funds nearly half (47%) of all New York births; 55% of the babies born in New York City each year are born to parents covered by Medicaid.
Only 65% of New York City workers have employer-sponsored health insurance through their job.
Together with the proposed cuts to Medicaid, budget reconciliation is also proposing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) be cut by $230 billion in federal spending by forcing states to cover between 5 and 25 percent of the cost of SNAP.
New York State will likely need to cover 25%.
In 2024, New York State administered $7.3B in SNAP benefits
New York City Department of Social Services issued ~$5B in SNAP benefits.
Nearly 3 million New Yorkers receive SNAP benefits, representing 1.7 million families.
1.8 million New York City residents receive SNAP, including 560,000 children.
Older adults represent 30% of total SNAP residents in New York City.
The bill blocks the USDA’s discretion to increase monthly benefits in line with food prices and forces states into tough budget decisions about where to cut or reduce eligibility.
