legislation, and also supported the public option, which did not make it into the bill. New York Governor David Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the Affordable Care Act a "disgrace," because it gave more money under Medicaid to states like Nebraska, whose senator, Democrat Ben Nelson, held out for more financial support as a condition of voting for the bill. New York State, in contrast, would have a $5.5 billion cut over 10 years. Bloomberg said it would force New York City to close 100 health clinics, would create a $1 billion hole in New York State's budget, and threaten the existence of struggling hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities, and called Gillibrand to complain. Gillibrand said that the problem is that there are more small states in the Senate, so funding formulas tend to favor small states, and New York only gets 79 cents back for every dollar it sends to Washington. The formulas were more favorable to New York in the House, so she and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were trying to get the final bill closer to the House version in the Conference Committee. Gillibrand said that the bill would be a net benefit for New York because it would bring in $40 billion to the state, insure 2.7 million New Yorkers, increase the use of preventative care by requiring that it is covered, and give tax credits to 250,000 small businesses to help them afford health care coverage. In September 2017, Gillibrand joined Bernie Sanders and 14 other co-sponsors in submitting a single-payer health care plan to Congress called the "Medicare for All" bill. The plan also covers vision and dental care, not currently covered by Medicare. In November 2018, amid an increase in cases of acute flaccid myelitis, Gillibrand held a press conference declaring it was "good news" that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had announced the formation of a task force to research acute flaccid myelitis before tracking it and called on Congress "to make sure they have the funding they need to get the job done." In December 2018, Gillibrand was one of forty-two senators to sign a letter to Trump administration officials Alex Azar, Seema Verma, and Steve Mnuchin arguing that the administration was improperly using Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act to authorize states to "increase health care costs for millions of consumers while