Health bigs plan ad blitz to fight cuts

ALBANY — Fearful of painful budget cuts, the powerful state health care industry is preparing to spend $6 million on a “shock and awe” campaign during the upcoming state budget battle, the Daily News has learned.

The outlay is the largest by the industry during budget talks since Gov. Cuomo’s first year in 2011.

A paid digital ad effort directed at voters will start following Cuomo’s budget address on Tuesday, a source with the campaign said.

A big rally is scheduled for Feb. 12 at the state Capitol, followed the next day by the start of a multimillion dollar statewide TV and radio ad campaign that will run through the end of March, when the new budget is due.

The effort will be funded by the Healthcare Education Project, a joint lobbying effort of the Greater New York Hospital Association and Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union representing health care workers. “In the face of a relentless attack from Washington on funding for health care, we need our legislative leaders to stand up and protect the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” said 1199 President George Gresham (photo).

And with the state facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, the groups fear the Legislature will hit them disproportionately compared to other big-ticket budget areas like education.

The health care industry argues the hospitals in recent years have seen far slower growth in spending than education and believes there should be parity this year.

“New York’s financially struggling hospitals were living austerely within the state’s Medicaid spending cap well before the recent avalanche of Federal health care cuts, while other sectors, such as education, have not been held to theirs,” said Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association.