While Gov. Kathy Hochul has lauded her Master Plan for Aging and historic investments made by the state fiscal year 2024-25 budget, the $236.8 billion spending plan once again overlooks the needs of New York’s older adults and nearly 100,000 nursing home residents. The Legislature did its best to restore devastating long-term care cuts proposed by the governor in January, but, in the end, the final budget agreement fell short of what older New Yorkers and their caregivers deserve.

Nursing home residents are often living with complex medical conditions and sometimes severe disabilities, and the vast majority of residents depend on Medicaid to pay for their medical needs. While homes used to receive an inflationary increase to rates every year, that standard increase has been eliminated every year since 2007. By 2023, over a decade of cuts and minimal increases snowballed into a staggering $1.6 billion annual shortfall between the........

© The Leader