“Thousands of middle-income older adults are caught in between—too poor to pay privately [for home care], too ‘wealthy’ to qualify for help. Now, New York has a chance to fix part of that gap.”
Every day at Encore Community Services in Midtown Manhattan, I meet older New Yorkers who worked their whole lives and now face an impossible choice. They can drain their savings to pay for home care, or try to live without the help they need to stay safe at home.
Medicaid, the public insurance program for people with very low incomes, will pay for long-term home care. But Medicare, which nearly all older adults rely on after 65, will not. In New York, thousands of middle-income older adults are caught in between—too poor to pay privately, too “wealthy” to qualify for help.
Now, New York has a chance to fix part of that gap. New York State Senate Bill S7077, which passed the Legislature this year and awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature, would remove the client fees for the state’s Expanded In-Home Services for the Elderly Program, or EISEP…