(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – It didn’t matter that Evelyn Harris, who does not drive, had to take a 45-minute bus ride from Niagara Falls to Buffalo on Wednesday (April 5th) to personally speak at a news conference that was held at Oishei Children’s Hospital with a number of area Labor Leaders, Union Members, Hospital and Nursing Home Administrators and Elected Officials who all supported the call for Governor Kathy Hochul to close the Medicaid Coverage Gap in New York State’s Fiscal Year 2024 State Budget. 

Why? - It was too important not to.

“‘Everyone needs to know what (Caregivers) feel.’  ‘It’s important I be here,’” said Harris (Pictured Below/1199 SEIU Photo), an Emergency Room Nurse at the Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, a Western New York Safety Net Hospital where she’s worked for more than 40 years, and a Member of 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Workers East.

“(Health Caregivers) ‘came together’ during the (COVID-19) Pandemic.  ‘We were here to take care of your loved ones.’  ‘We held the hands of your loved ones in our hospitals and nursing homes.’  ‘Some of us are single Moms’ who work at the hospital, ‘but how can you feed your kids when you make ($14) an hour?’  ‘We need to pay them what is right and we are asking our Governor to do the right thing.’  ‘They deserve more than this.’  ‘We are just a minute away from another pandemic,’” Harris (Pictured Above/1199 SEIU Photo) told WNYLaborToday.com after the news conference.

1199 SEIU was joined by representatives from the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) and the Public Employees Federation (PEF) in calling on New York ’s Elected Leaders to invest $2.5 billion in health care in the State’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget, including: Increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates by 10% for hospitals and 20% for nursing homes, with no offsets; A restoration of $700 million in safety-net funding and also increasing it by an additional $600 million; Addressing the disparity in reimbursement rates in Upstate New York, which are 20% lower than Downstate; Preserve the investment made last year in Fair Pay for Home Care to stabilize the Homecare Workforce and undo the drastic proposed cuts to wages for Workers employed through the consumer-directed program; and Raising the Minimum Wage to $21.25 by 2027, followed by indexing.   (WNYLaborToday.com News Conference Photo Pictured Below)

With stagnating Medicaid funding and a depleted and burnt-out Health Care Workforce, an austere health care budget would be devastating to New Yorkers, especially seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families, an array of speakers said at the news conference.

“This is ‘very dear to my heart,’” Harris told WNYLaborToday.com.  “We have Housekeeping Staff who are making ($14) an hour - ‘to start.’  ‘They deserve more than this because it takes everybody (to operate a hospital).’”

Recounting a story of trying to stabilize a young man who’d been stabbed in the chest during a fight, which punctured an artery, Harris said: “The equipment at our hospital is ‘one-hundred years old.’  He had to be transported to the trauma center at Erie County Community Medical Center (in Buffalo, which was better equipped to handle the wound treatment).  I got in the ambulance with him for the trip ‘and kept pushing down on towels (applied to his chest) to stop the bleeding.’  ‘I went through a lot of towels.’  When he was safely in, ‘I couldn’t move my arms.’  ‘They were locked up.’”

“We need an increase in funding,” said Jim Scordato (Pictured Above, Speaking At The Podium/WNYLaborToday.com Photo) - 1199 SEIU Vice President for Western New York Hospitals.  “There are ‘funding gaps across New York State’ and that’s why we are asking the Governor - from Buffalo to Rochester to Syracuse to the North Country and down into New York City, ‘to increase’ funding.”

CWA District One Upstate New York Area Director Deb Hayes said: “We represent (15,000) Health Care Workers in New York State.  Their jobs are ‘labor-intensive and require’ bedside care ‘while our health system is under duress and in crisis.’  ‘We are trying to fix (short) staffing, but Members are affected on the job and patient care is suffering and it is pushing our Members out the door.’  Western New York Hospitals ‘are suffering with many operating in a negative (economic) status due the after-effects of the pandemic.’  We ‘need’ the Governor and the Legislature ‘to allocate funding for our hospitals and Members and increase’ Medicaid reimbursements by (20%).  ‘We have been overlooked for so long and we have to improve our working condition to insure the most vulnerable get the aid they need.’”

The mid-week news conference was part of a statewide push, where Union-represented Health Care Workers and Hospital Administrators were joined by Elected Officials at press events where they spoke out about the State Budget and its proposed cuts to health care.  (WNYLaborToday.com News Conference Photo Pictured Below)

They pointed to the fact that 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.

But they say, rather than making the necessary investments to stabilize health care services, Governor Hochul’s current budget would make the situation worse. 

Her 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, they said. 

Hochul’s budget includes cuts of $700 million from 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 speakers said. 

Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation President Peter DeJesus, Jr. said at the Buffalo news conference: “‘Our Health Care Heroes have put New York State on their backs and our Workers cannot be forgotten.’  ‘They ‘ve been put at risk and we have to do better.’  And our Governor ‘has to do better.’  ‘We have to do what is right and the time is now!’”

James Funderburk (Pictured Above/1199 SEIU Photo), a 1199 SEIU Member who works as an Environmental Services Worker and is employed at the Elderwood Nursing Home in the Buffalo Suburb of Williamsville, also spoke, recounting a story of a resident who was a big Buffalo Bills fan who was not able to watch the Bills’ home playoff lost to the Cincinnati Bengals that ended the team’s Super Bowl hopes just a couple of months ago.

Why? - because his TV remote fell off his bed and onto the floor, where - incapacitated, he could not reach to pick back up. 

The man waited five hours before an Aide answered his call for help to retrieve his remote, he said.

Why? - because, Funderburk added, that only one Aide was responsible for taking care of 40 patients and just could not get to the man’s calls.

“‘If you’re asking for (100%) of our effort, then (20%) is what we need,’” Funderburk said.  “‘If you want to make sure your Mom, Father, Grandmother or Grandfather is taken care of - you don’t want them to wait five hours.’”

WNYLaborToday.com Editor's Note: Some of the information contained within this Labor News Story was supplied by an 1199 SEIU press release.