Reporting a broken cash machine
Cuomo
This is more or less the situation faced by  Gov. Cuomo  with the Essential Plan  a form of Obamacare  that since 2016 has been providing free or low-cost health coverage to low-income New Yorkers. It currently has 710 000 enrollees.
 Team Cuomo  has chosen not to refuse the money or warn Washington about whatâs happening. Instead  theyâve gone with option C: sue the feds to keep the broken ATM running until someone gets it fixed or turns it off.
The surprising truth emerged last week  when the Empire Center obtained a state Department of Health memo being shared with insiders. It showed the Essential Plan running a hefty surplus  which  Cuomo  intends to use for plugging holes elsewhere in the state budget.
The situation is all the more surprising because the plan recently took a $1 billion cut to  its  federal funding  courtesy of a constitutional flaw in President Barack Obamaâs Affordable Care Act. Plus  the memo says the state has been overpaying the insurance companies who manage the benefit under contract with the state.
Worse is the  Cuomo  administrationâs plan to spend the surplus on other programs  such as subsidizing financially weak hospitals. Once the feds wake up to that diversion  theyâre liable to demand repayment â as state Senate Health Chairman Kemp Hannon (R-L.I.) warned last week at a budget hearing. If New York somehow wins its suit and claims another billion-plus dollars  it will be digging the hole even deeper.
 Cuomo  and  his  aides see New York as being under attack from Washington â on tax policy  immigration and other issues â and may feel that all is fair in political warfare. But the money theyâre trying to grab comes from taxpayers  not the President or Congress. Their gamesmanship with public funds gives the whole enterprise of government-funded health care a bad name.
 Better Cuomo  should drop the lawsuit  urge Congress to rewrite the funding formula and come fully clean about the Essential Planâs finances: Did it run a surplus before now? If so  what happened to the extra money? And why wasnât any of this made clear to the taxpaying public?
This is more or less the situation faced by  Gov. Cuomo  with the Essential Plan  a form of Obamacare  that since 2016 has been providing free or low-cost health coverage to low-income New Yorkers. It currently has 710 000 enrollees.
  [TGT] has chosen not to refuse the money or warn Washington about whatâs happening. Instead  theyâve gone with option C: sue the feds to keep the broken ATM running until someone gets it fixed or turns it off.
The surprising truth emerged last week  when the Empire Center obtained a state Department of Health memo being shared with insiders. It showed the Essential Plan running a hefty surplus  which   [TGT]   intends to use for plugging holes elsewhere in the state budget.
The situation is all the more surprising because the plan recently took a $1 billion cut to  its  federal funding  courtesy of a constitutional flaw in President Barack Obamaâs Affordable Care Act. Plus  the memo says the state has been overpaying the insurance companies who manage the benefit under contract with the state.
Worse is  [TGT] administrationâs plan to spend the surplus on other programs  such as subsidizing financially weak hospitals. Once the feds wake up to that diversion  theyâre liable to demand repayment â as state Senate Health Chairman Kemp Hannon (R-L.I.) warned last week at a budget hearing. If New York somehow wins its suit and claims another billion-plus dollars  it will be digging the hole even deeper.
 Cuomo  and  his  aides see New York as being under attack from Washington â on tax policy  immigration and other issues â and may feel that all is fair in political warfare. But the money theyâre trying to grab comes from taxpayers  not the President or Congress. Their gamesmanship with public funds gives the whole enterprise of government-funded health care a bad name.
  [TGT] should drop the lawsuit  urge Congress to rewrite the funding formula and come fully clean about the Essential Planâs finances: Did it run a surplus before now? If so  what happened to the extra money? And why wasnât any of this made clear to the taxpaying public?