By Thomas Kaplan, New York Times, February 24, 2011

ALBANY — In an unexpected vote, a committee appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to cut billions in health care spending approved on Thursday an annual spending cap and across-the-board reductions for all Medicaid providers.

The vote, on 79 cost-cutting measures, was part of a sweeping overhaul of how the state finances the program for the poor and disabled. It came only five hours after some of the measures had been made public, and only minutes after state officials had finished explaining how some of the proposals would work....Mr. Cuomo said he would add the recommendations to his budget, which is before the Legislature....“You don’t challenge the kind of budget deficit that we had without dealing with pain,” said George Gresham, the president of 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East. “This,” he added, “resulted in pain, but it was shared pain.” ....