Byline: JAMES M. ODATO Capitol bureau
Lawmakers and Gov. George Pataki agreed Tuesday to a sweeping health financing deal that will increase cigarette costs and improve wages and benefits for most people who work in nursing homes, hospitals and clinics.
Worked out in secret and with the leaders of a health care workers' union, the measure was approved early today by the Senate and the Assembly. It will pump billions of additional dollars into the state's medical networks and resolve a chunk of the next state budget. Indeed, about $25 billion of the state's $84 billion budget is Medicaid and health care costs.
The Senate passed the measure shortly after midnight today in a partisan vote in which four Democrats led by Richard Dollinger of Rochester and Neil Breslin of Bethlehem voted no.
The Democrat-controlled Assembly voted on the bill almost two hours later without debate. It passed 103 to 34. Among the opponents was Insurance Committee Chairman Alexander Grannis, D-Manhattan, who said the state was squandering a chance to create a long-term health-care fund from the sale of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Assemblyman Martin Luster, …
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