Lawmakers and advocates call for additional state funding for aging services at AARP NY event

Following the release of the state Senate and state Assembly’s one-house budgets, the New York state chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons hosted a virtual legislative forum in Albany presented by City & State on Tuesday. The panel conversation was held the The Well in the state Legislative Office Building and included calls for key funding to be included in the final budget agreement to address the state’s rapidly growing aging population. 

City & State reporter Austin Jefferson moderated the panel, which featured Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, state Sen. Cordell Cleare, AARP legislative representative Bill Ferris, Association on Aging Executive Director Rebecca Preve and LiveOn NY Executive Director Allison Nickerson. 

Speaking ahead of the panel conversation, AARP New York State Director Beth Finkel stressed the importance of more funding for support services in this year’s state budget. “We all know that New York state's aging population is booming to the tune of one in five New Yorkers are now 65-plus,” she said. “That's more than children 15-years-old-and-younger, which is the first time that this has happened in our state. So, there are more than 3.5 million New Yorkers that are 65-plus.”

Finkel touted this year’s increased funding for aging support services, such as transportation and home-delivered meals, that appeared in both the state Assembly and Senate one-house budget bills. Seawright and Cleare, the chairs of their respective chambers’ Committees on Aging, also praised Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal in her executive budget to allocate $45 million for the state Office for the Aging to help in-home and community-based social services for adults, though they added that more will need to be done going forward as the state’s population continues to age.  

Cleare also raised concerns about the need for affordable housing for seniors and said she was proud of the $60 million allocated for senior housing in the Senate’s one-house budget. “Housing is one of the biggest, it's one of the most critical factors, in the state right now,” she said. “And across the state, we need to pay attention to it because we just don't have enough of it. It is not affordable, even existing (housing). And, especially in New York City and in the five boroughs, we have to make sure that we're preparing for our older New Yorkers to live somewhere.”

Seawright pointed to the importance of the $53 million that the Assembly’s one-house budget appropriated for senior support services, noting that 2.2 million family caregivers are currently spending an average of nearly 20% of their income on services. “It’s a game changer in the long term and maybe this is the first step in creating a better foundation going forward,” she said. 

The panelists also addressed issues with recruiting and paying at-home caregivers to keep aging adults in their homes and off Medicaid, which also ultimately saves money for taxpayers.

“It’s tragic that a state like New York doesn't take the time, the effort and the policy to invest in older New Yorkers and their family caregivers, with the exception of this year,” Ferris said. “And it's gonna cost taxpayers money if an individual goes into the Medicaid system. It's a lot cheaper to keep someone at home and off of Medicaid than into a nursing home that's largely funded by Medicaid. So, it just doesn't make sense not to pay attention to this population.”

Ferris said in the course of his work with AARP, he has often heard from members who told him that the last thing they want is to end up in a nursing home for long-term care. But he said that if the state doesn’t step up to support at-home caregivers, most older adults will have no choice but to go to nursing homes.

Nickerson said that the increased cost of care for the elderly often leads to increased financial strain on them. “No one should be aging into poverty,” she said.

The panelists also raised concerns about the national push to eliminate federal funding and how that could impact New York. Preve, the head of  said the federal funding cuts would “absolutely, significantly” impact the number of people being served in every service delivery system. Potential changes to Medicare and Medicaid, she warned, will “flood and inundate the state Office of Aging Services network.”

“I will tell you the federal government gives the least amount of money to aging services. The state gives the second (least), and the localities are picking up the cost of much of this care because those are local governments that have a responsibility and they see their constituents every day that need services,” she said. 

Preve echoed other panelists’ praise of the increased funding for aging services in this year’s budget proposals. “But, we’re still not serving people at the highest level of care,” she warned.