Bloomberg Warns Senate Health-Care Bill Will Hurt New Yorkers

New York, NY —

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is warning that the Senate version of the health care reform bill would have devastating consequences for New York City. "It would require us to close all of the hundred health clinics and a bunch of the ambulatory care things that we provide overnight," Bloomberg says.

That's because the Senate bill would cut Medicaid payments, which the city is currently receiving to offset the cost of care for the city's poor. A vote in the Senate is supposed to come by Thursday. If the bill is approved it will go to a conference committee to be reconciled with the version passed by the House. That version would not cut the city's Medicaid payments as deeply.