ACTION ALERT: Bring Your Advocacy to Social Media for Final Days of Budget Fight!

The NYS budget negotiation process for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-27 is expected to extend beyond the March 31st deadline. At this stage of the process, much of the decision-making is with Governor Hochul and the leadership of the Senate and Assembly.

A key method to capture legislative leadership’s attention over the next few days or weeks will be through social media. Please join us in a social media campaign, urging the State to “Stop the Crisis and Fully Fund Long-Term Care!”

To participate in this social media campaign, please take the following simple steps:

Print off a color copy of this nursing home sign, or this long-term care sign.
Ask a resident or patient who wants to help us advocate to hold the sign for a photo, or take a video of them holding the sign and urgently saying the slogan.
1. Be sure to get written permission from the resident, patient or family member to use their photo in media.
Draft the post for the photo or video on your organization’s social media platforms, along with one of the captions in the table below.
Be sure to tag the Governor, the Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Heastie, Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger, and the Senate and Assembly Health Chairs Paulin and Rivera.
1. The Facebook tags for each of these individuals are available in the drafted captions below.
2. When you copy and paste captions into social media platforms, be sure that the “tags” (@) highlight in blue to ensure the legislators were effectively tagged.
3. Feel free to also tag your area’s state legislators in the post!
Post your photo/video and caption of choice and use our hashtags so we can see your posts!
1. Post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Instagram, etc.
2. Additional Graphic Option: Underfunding LTC

Draft Captions:

Service Line

Captions

Please note that these legislator tags (@) are for Facebook. You may need to search for the appropriate tags for other platforms.

Nursing Homes

Eleven nursing homes have announced closure since 2024! It is time to stop the nursing home closure crisis and fully fund nursing home care in NYS.

Nursing homes are closing, and older adults are paying the price. While modest investments made since 2023 have been helpful, they have not been enough to reverse current closure trends or correct over 15 years of stagnant Medicaid funding. Now, the closure crisis is snowballing into a catastrophe.

We urge the State to prioritize quality care for older adults by restoring the full 15% in capital cuts and allocating $750 million in NEW Medicaid funding for nursing homes. Helping nursing homes helps hospitals – and aging New Yorkers deserve a long-term care sector and workforce they can depend on.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, @Andrea Stewart-Cousins, @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

ACF/AL

Every New Yorker deserves access to quality care that meets their needs, including older adults! However, years of underfunding and rising costs have made it difficult for desirable models such as the assisted living program (ALP) and adult care facilities (ACFs) to remain open. It’s time for Medicaid rates to reflect the current costs of operating the ALP, and updates to funding for ACFs are also long over-due.

Thank you @Andrea Stewart-Cousins, @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger, for proposing new investments in the ALP and restoring cuts to EQUAL and the Enriched Housing Subsidy (EHS).

@Governor Kathy Hochul, please provide new Medicaid funding for the ALP in the final NYS budget and ensure that no cuts are made to NY ACF residents. Proposed cuts to EQUAL and EHS reduce the quality of life and services available for older adults.

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

HCBS

Underfunding long-term care (LTC) is a problem for all New Yorkers! As home care providers struggle to find staff, families struggle to find services for their loved ones in their communities. The lack of home care options contributes to challenges throughout the entire healthcare system, including delayed hospital discharges, and unnecessary hospital visits.

Thank you @Andrea Stewart-Cousins, @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger, for proposing new investments in Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs) and other critical aging services in your one-house budgets.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, please support the Senate’s proposed $50 million investment in CHHAs and the Assembly’s COLA increases for human services providers and staff.

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

ADHC

Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) programs were forced to shut down during the pandemic. Six years later, over half of the 120 programs are still closed and those that have reopened are struggling to stay viable due to lack of resources and staff.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, @Andrea Stewart-Cousins, @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Hon. Gustavo Rivera, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @State Senator Liz Krueger, please continue to support this essential community program for older adults, which allows people to remain living at home with loved ones while receiving care and socialization during the day.

Please increase funding to help ADHCs rebuild, reopen, and serve older adults in their communities.

#ProtectOlderAdults #FundLongTermCare

Housing

Thank You, @Senator Brian Kavanagh, @Senator Cordell Cleare and @Andrea Stewart-Cousins for proposing to fund and establish the NY Resident Assistance Program for older adults living in affordable senior housing! This modest $2M/year investment would pay for itself, generating $4M in annual NET Medicaid savings. More importantly, it would help older adults continue to age healthily and independently in their homes with light-touch community support, helping them navigate the aging process while reducing strains on higher levels of care.

@Governor Kathy Hochul, @NYSAssemblyMajority, Speaker @Carl E. Heastie, @Assemblywoman Amy R. Paulin & @Linda B. Rosenthal – please fight for this common-sense proposal to be included in the Final Budget for SFY 2027!

#SupportOlderAdults #NYResidentAssistance

Contact: Sarah Daly, sdaly@leadingageny.org