Medicaid cuts to imperil addiction programs for the needy on Long Island, officials say

A program that began in 2017 in response to Long Island's opioid crisis is among several serving the needy that will feel the impact of planned Medicaid cuts, officials said Monday.

Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) stood with Jeffrey L. Reynolds, president and CEO of Family & Children's Association, or FCA, a Garden City-based nonprofit that provides an array of services to children, adults and seniors, at FCA's Thrive Recovery Center in Westbury, warning of the potential negative impact of the budget bill, which Trump touted as the "Big Beautiful Bill."

"We want to make sure that people know about the really devastating impact the Big Not So Beautiful Bill is going to have on our community, not just those in need, but all across our community — the threat to health insurance," Gillen said during the news conference. She said 1.5 million New Yorkers face the loss of their health insurance, a figure cited by Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration and advocates in recent months, Newsday has reported.

Gillen cited cuts nonprofits are facing in the "revenue stream that helps them help the neediest among our community, whether it's people suffering from substance abuse disorder, whether it's people suffering from food insecurity, or the special needs community."

THRIVE is a nonclinical program that offers support groups, recreational activities, socialization and mutual aid for substance abusers who have had medical treatment to get off drugs.

While clients are not charged for THRIVE services, and the center is funded by New York State, Reynolds said the reductions in federal Medicaid will mean some clients might lose funding for that medical treatment at health care facilities. That could mean THRIVE Recovery Centers could see fewer clients, or those who come to the center in crisis, because they have not been able to get outpatient or inpatient treatment, he said.

"Medicaid nationwide, in New York State, in your home community is the single largest payer of addiction treatment, and the single largest payer for mental health care," Reynolds said.

In addition to a Westbury center, THRIVE centers are in Hauppauge and the East End, and there is a mobile unit, called THRIVE Everywhere, Jaymie Kahn-Rapp, FCA's assistant vice president of harm reduction and recovery, said in an interview.

Reynolds added that because of the uncertainty around Medicaid, FCA also decided not to go ahead with a $7 million clinic project planned for Westbury that was projected to serve thousands of people who were "basically a Medicaid population."

He added, "It was going to be an integrated clinic that provided substance use disorder care and mental health care, and maybe even some primary care for folks in the Westbury community ... With uncertainty about Medicaid going forward in 2026 and 2027, there was zero chance that we were going to take on that kind of risk in this environment."

The potential elimination of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, otherwise known as SAMSA, is also "something that concerns us," Reynolds said.

Reynolds said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has proposed eliminating that department. "Even before that's happened, the staff has been cut pretty dramatically," Reynolds said. "Some of the funding streams that we generally see this time of year have not opened up, have not appeared on federal portals and we've not been able to apply."

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie