Phone Call Day of Action Set for Tomorrow, March 4th!
(March 3, 2026) LeadingAge NY is calling on all members to participate in a Phone Call Day of Action on the morning of Wed., March 4th to urge state legislators to stand up in conference for the adequate funding of nursing homes and long-term care in advance of the one-house budget proposals.
Use your voice on March 4th! Please call your State Senator and Assembly Member and urge them to be vocal in their respective conferences for LeadingAge NY’s budget priorities.
Nursing Home Talking Points:
- Continue last year’s funding of $445 million, and secure $750 million of new funding for nursing homes (one-half share of the new $1.5 billion to be divided evenly between nursing homes and hospitals).
- Why this matters: Acuity adjustments are frozen at July 2023 levels, and nursing homes went from 2007 to 2023 with no material increase to their operating rate. We need a meaningful investment to stabilize the sector, enable us to secure the workforce residents deserve, and ensure access to care for patients seeking discharge from hospitals. Helping nursing homes helps the hospitals, and hospitals have access to alternative funding streams outside of this $1.5 billion pool.
- Keep the 10% capital cut restoration, and restore the remaining 5% cut from 2020 (approximately $16 million).
- Emphasize the nursing home closure crisis and the challenges of your organization and community. Closure data points are available on our general and nursing home issue briefs. All other budget issue briefs are available here.
- Apply pressure on the legislator to please stand up in conference, urging for meaningful investments in non-profit nursing homes.
Members of all service lines are strongly encouraged to pick up the phone and call legislators this week, and urge for the inclusion and support of the budget priorities that are most important to you.
- We recommend that you highlight the two to four budget requests that are most important to your organization. A straightforward list of budget requests, per service line, is available on the second page of our general issue brief.
- Explain why the budget action is needed and what it would mean for the people you serve.
- Do your best to explain how this issue impacts the legislator's constituents and why they need to highlight the need for these budget requests in conference.
- If legislative staff have questions, you can encourage them to contact our team at LeadingAge NY.
Find your state legislators’ contact information by entering your information here.
Your phone calls and letter-writing make a real difference. Please take a few minutes on or before March 4th to reach out to your legislators and make your voice heard!
Contact: Sarah Daly, sdaly@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8845