(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – Earlier this morning (Tuesday, March 21st), 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) United Healthcare Workers East Members - still reeling from three years of the  Coronavirus Pandemic, boarded buses in Buffalo, which will take them to Albany where as many as 15,000 Health Care Workers from across New York State will rally together and demand Governor Kathy Hochul stop State cuts to health care and instead, invest in it.

Thousands of 1199 SEIU Members from across the State, who are employed in nearly all job titles in hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies, clinics, research labs, universities, home care, and other health care settings, will also call on Legislative Leadership to reverse health care cuts and close the Medicaid Coverage Cap.

A series of marches will take place around the Capitol Building to the MVP Arena as busloads of Health Care Workers arrive throughout the morning, followed by a massive afternoon rally that will take place at the arena.

1199 SEIU President George Gresham and Legislative Leaders are slated to speak at this afternoon’s rally.

Health Care Workers are in Albany because New York’s Health Care System is facing an unprecedented crisis, 1199 SEIU Representatives said. 

Three years to the month that the first COVID case was confirmed in New York, patients and Workers continue to face the Pandemic’s aftershocks, they say, as safety-net hospitals are on the brink of closure, emergency rooms are overflowing, nursing home residents face interminably long wait times for bedside care, and homecare services are becoming ever harder to come by.

Even with all that is going on, Union Officials say Governor Hochul’s proposed budget utterly fails to grasp the gravity of this crisis, Union Officials say. 

But rather than making the necessary investments to stabilize health care services, the proposed 5% Medicaid rate increase is entirely offset by the elimination of savings from the 340b Drug Pricing Program and the cut to the Indigent Care Pool, 1199 SEIU Reps say. 

The budget includes cuts of $700 million that would go to Safety Net Hospitals, reverses course on a major victory last year raising the pay of Home Care Workers to $3 above the minimum wage, reduces wages for consumer-directed Home Health Aides by $4.09 an hour, and fails to provide adequate funding increases to nursing homes as they struggle to recruit and retain Staff to comply with Nursing Home Reform Laws, the Union says. 

With stagnating Medicaid funding and a depleted and burnt-out workforce, an austere health care budget would be devastating to New Yorkers, especially seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families, 1199 SEIU says.

As such, 1199 SEIU is calling on New York’s Elected Leaders to invest $2.5 billion in health care in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget, including the following: Increase Medicaid reimbursement rates by 10% for hospitals and 20% for nursing homes, with no offsets.  Ninety-percent of Upstate Nursing Homes are below the State’s median reimbursement of $248 per day, per resident; Address the disparity in reimbursement rates in Upstate New York, which are 20% lower than Downstate; Restore the $700 million in safety-net funding and increase it by an additional $600 million; Preserve the investment made last year in Fair Pay for Home Care to stabilize the Home Care Workforce and undo the drastic proposed cuts to wages for Workers employed through the Consumer-Directed Program; and Raise the minimum wage to $21.25 by 2027, followed by indexing.  

1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East - whose mission is to achieve quality care and good jobs for all and is the largest and fastest-growing Health Care Union in America, represents more than 450,000 Nurses and Caregivers throughout the States of New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts and Florida, and in Washington, D.C.