Medicaid provides healthcare to families with modest incomes, young adults who have aged off their parents’ insurance, people with disabilities and frail elderly individuals in long-term care. It covers your neighbors, your kids, your parents and grandparents. And it is now on the chopping block.

The program is administered by the states and jointly funded with the federal government. It is not cheap, costing more than $600 billion a year. That is why it is in Congress’ crosshairs. The House of Representatives’ budget plan would slash up to $880 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years, about 11.8% of all federal funding to the states.

Despite the expense, which makes up less than 10% of all federal spending, Medicaid is the cheapest, most efficient way to provide health coverage to those who don’t have employer-based insurance. That explains why Texas, which chose not to expand its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, has an uninsured rate of nearly 19%. By comparison, New York’s uninsured rate is under 5%.

More than 6.9 million New Yorkers use Medicaid. Moreover, the need and........

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