Legislative Bulletin: One-House Bills Expected Monday

Leaders Preview Assembly and Senate Budget Proposals

This week, Assembly and Senate leaders began previewing their one-house budget proposals, which are expected to be passed this coming Monday. The Assembly Budget Proposal, per a press release from Speaker Carl Heastie and Assemblymembers Herman Farrell Jr., Fred W. Thiele Jr., and Robin Schimminger, will include tax credits for small businesses, increased research and development tax credits, and enhancements to the Excelsior Jobs Program to increase participation. The Senate plan, according to a statement from the Republican majority, will recommend “rejecting hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax-and-fee increases advanced in Governor Cuomo’s Executive Budget proposal.”

Action Alert: Last Chance to Contact Your Lawmakers Before One-House Bills are Passed!

Time is running out to contact your lawmakers before the one-house bills are passed! It is imperative that they hear from you today. Please take a few minutes to call your representatives and weigh in on the issues important to you.

Key among our priorities is ensuring that the Legislature sets aside $200 million of the Governor’s $500 million Statewide Health Care Transformation Program investment for long-term/post-acute care (LTPAC) infrastructure and includes assisted living and hospice providers among the eligible entities. Please review our capital request here, and then call your legislators and let them know how important it is for the state to begin investing in long term care. Be sure to remind them that LTPAC providers are seeing little, if any funding from DSRIP, as illustrated by this pie chart.

We are very pleased to report that Senate Housing Chair Betty Little has introduced legislation, S.5141, to establish a new dedicated Affordable Senior Housing and Services Program providing coordinated capital, rental assistance, and services funding. LeadingAge NY has been working hard on this proposal over the last several weeks. Senator Little has asked that the bill language be included in the Senate’s one-house budget proposal, and S.5141 will be on the agenda for Wednesday’s Housing Committee meeting. We encourage you to reach out to Senator Little and thank her for introducing this important legislation, and then contact your lawmakers to urge their support as well.

Other initiatives that we would like to see addressed in the one-house bills are listed below.

1. Ensure MLTC Rate Adequacy and a Nursing Home Rate Cell
2. Support an SSI Increase and the Restoration of the Enriched Housing Subsidy for ACFs
3. Reject the Nursing Home Bed Hold Cut
4. Protect Home and Community-based Services (HCBS) in New York State
5. Reject the MLTC Transportation Carve-Out Proposal

Thank you for taking action! Please let us know if we can assist your efforts in any way.

CCRC Revitalization Act Reintroduced in the Assembly

The CCRC Revitalization Act, legislation which would eliminate various barriers to the development, expansion, and efficient operation of Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) in New York State while preserving vitally important resident protections, has been reintroduced in the Assembly.

CCRCs provide a full range of services, including independent housing, ACF/assisted living, and nursing home care to residents in a campus setting as their needs change. While the number of CCRCs has grown considerably across the nation, only 12 CCRCs are currently operating in New York. The CCRC Revitalization Act, A.6450 (Schimminger), would ensure that this important long term care model is available to New York’s seniors.

We encourage you to reach out to your Assembly representative and ask him or her to sign onto this key legislation. LeadingAge NY’s memo of support is available here.

House GOP Unveils ACA Replacement Bill

Lastly, House Republicans this week unveiled their long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Titled the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the bill would replace the ACA’s income-based subsidies with age-based tax credits ranging from $2,000 to $4,000, with credits for a single household limited to $14,000. The AHCA also proposes a major overhaul of Medicaid, phasing out the expansion created under the ACA by 2020 and moving toward a per-person allotment to the states. The Medicaid expansion rollback has been a major point of contention for lawmakers, with U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) pledging to oppose any plan that does not include stability for beneficiary populations or flexibility for states.

On Thursday, after completing their markups, the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees voted to advance the AHCA to the House Budget Committee. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to release its “score” of the bill on Monday, and a full House vote will likely occur within weeks. Meanwhile, an analysis conducted by the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has concluded that over one million New Yorkers would face a significant loss of health coverage under the AHCA, and over $4.5 billion in costs would be shifted to the state, counties, and safety net hospitals over the next four years.

Contacts:

Ami Schnauber, aschnauber@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8854

Jeff Diamond, jdiamond@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8821