President George Bush's proposed budget for the fiscal year 2009 will cut health care funding in upstate New York by $2.4 billion over the next five years, including by almost $10 million in Cayuga County, according to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and a state health care organization.

Schumer criticized the president's budget Wednesday, announcing in a statement that the proposal would slash Medicare funding to state hospitals, as well as cut funds to nursing homes and graduate medical education.

The statement also included a report that listed the amount of funding hospitals would lose on a county-by-county basis.

According to the report, which cites data supplied by the Healthcare Association of New York State, hospital losses in Cayuga County look to total $798,000 in the 2009 fiscal year and $9,395,000 over the next five years because of proposed cuts to Medicare.

The proposed budget includes an elimination of inflationary adjustments for Medicare reimbursements to hospitals; a 30 percent reduction in compensation for unpaid deductibles and co-pays at hospitals serving low-income families; a 5 percent decrease in federal assistance used to offset costs for patient care; and a reduction in federal aid for teaching hospitals, according to the report.

“This budget gives the meat axe to hospitals to every community of New York,” Schumer said in a news release. “Instead of cutting the legs out from under our health care system, we should be giving it the resources it needs to flourish and modernize.”

White House officials are defending the proposed budget, stating it will not affect Americans' access to health care.

During a press conference Monday, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle said the proposed budget is a way of “bending the growth curve” on Medicare, and that 50 million seniors in the United States will see their premiums come down under the plan.

Nussle also said during the briefing that health care access was not affected in 1997, when the federal government reduced Medicare spending more than Bush's budget proposes.

The Healthcare Association of New York State is currently compiling a complete analysis of how the proposed budget will affect local health care facilities, Auburn Memorial Hospital Chief Financial Officer John Baran said Wednesday.

Baran said he had not yet received information about how much of AMH's federal funding may be reduced, but, he said the numbers cited by Schumer sound too high.

Auburn Memorial is the county's only hospital. If that number is accurate, that Cayuga County will see $800,000 in hospital losses, it would mean a 3 percent cut to the hospital's Medicare revenues.

That would be a “significant budget cut,” Baran said.

It is more likely that the figure includes proposed Medicare losses to physicians and health care providers countywide, he said.

However, Baran said AMH is still bracing for a reduction in funds for Medicare, which represents about a third of the hospital's business.

The hospital is working to limit growth in its expenses and is in the process of increasing volumes to cover additional dollars lost by Medicare cuts, he said.

“Federal budget cuts will always have a lot of impact, and the recent history of Medicare has included cuts of some nature,” Baran said.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net