Home health aides play a vital role
Margarita Esperanza Hernandez, of Reliance Home Senior Services in Wantagh, with Carmela Gatti, 93, who has dementia and receives home care 24/7. Credit: Rick Kopstein
The article “LI fears loss of Haitian aides” rightly highlighted the vital role home health care plays in the lives of tens of thousands of Long Islanders. Home care nurses, aides, therapists, social workers, and their physician partners provide essential, life-sustaining services — ranging from skilled nursing and therapy to personal hygiene and social support — that keep New Yorkers safely at home and out of costlier hospitals and nursing homes.
Yet more than 200,000 New Yorkers lack access to care due to capacity shortages. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed $1.5 billion health stability fund ignores home care, directing dollars only to hospitals and nursing homes, while $1.2 billion in CDPAP (Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program) “savings” risk being diverted from home care. Nearly 60% of home care agencies report operating losses.
Lawmakers must ensure home care receives its fair share, reinvesting any savings back into these essential services, and recognize well-funded home care as a cost-saving measure for the state.
— Al Cardillo, Albany
The writer is CEO of the Home Care Association of New York State.
Once again, this administration, in its efforts to correct a wrong, goes so far in the other direction regarding illegal immigration with little or no foresight of what ramifications those actions will have.
Case in point, proposing the cancellation of TPS — Temporary Protected Status — using the blanket statement “they’re here illegally” as its justification [“Haitians on TPS get reprieve, no relief,” Opinion, Feb. 11]. These workers are important to so many families, performing many jobs none of us would ever consider doing. And they pay taxes and contribute to our overall economy at barely sustainable wages.
So, wouldn’t the sensible solution be to vet these workers for any criminal issues (most of whom likely don’t have any) and expedite their path to citizenship? Having a family member in a nursing home facility, I see firsthand the hard and often thankless jobs and long hours these workers put in every day.
Perhaps some of our officials should visit these facilities before blindly making policy changes that will create new problems that someday may affect them or a family member.
— Steve Pampinella, Holbrook
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