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The following Program Meetings for members and the general public were held in 2009:
In 2009, the Committee held four Program Meetings.
Friday, January 9, 2009: Attended by 39 persons from 22 different organizations.
Topic: Affordable Housing For Older New Yorkers In A Time Of Economic Uncertainty: Speakers: Patrick Kelly, Tenants & Neighbors; April Tyler, State & Local Campaigns Coordinator, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP)
Speakers discussed how gentrification, vacancy decontrol and the loss of federal housing dollars impact affordable housing. NYC Housing Authority has been hard hit and programs have been shut down; senior housing has suffered the most from cutbacks. Section 8 housing has taken a $2 billion cut nationwide and seventy Section 202 projects in the city have been abandoned because of no funds. The Mayor’s 10 year Housing Plan to increase affordable housing has been pushed back. Information was provided about programs that assist older renters: SCRIE, DRIE, Eviction Prevention Services, Legal Aid and Tenants & Neighbors counseling.
The audience learned how predatory lending led to foreclosures affecting homeowners in several boroughs. The elderly are targets of refinancing and home improvement scams. Laws were discussed that help those in foreclosure to negotiate an affordable settlement. But action is still needed on the federal level. NEDAP does organizing, education and advocacy around access to fair and affordable credit and development of affordable housing. NEDAP’s Consumer Law Project provides legal assistance on abusive and discriminatory practices in the credit and banking systems.
Friday, February 6, 2009: “Uncertain Tomorrow: How the Proposed City, State, and Federal Budgets Impact the Elderly”. Co-sponsored by: New York Citizens’ Committee on Aging; New York Statewide Senior Action Council and 1199/SEIU Retired Members Division.
The Forum was attended by 200 persons from 52 different organizations, plus 13 legislators and/or their staff.
Panel Presentation:
Moderator: Robert Blancato, President: Matz, Blancato & Associates
Panelists: NYS Assemblyman Richard Gottfried; Mike Burgess, Director NYS Office for the Aging; Minna Elias, Chief of Staff for Rep. Carolyn Maloney; Caryn Resnick, Deputy Commissioner DFTA.
Robert Blancato made opening remarks about the proposed Economic Stimulus Bill and its impact on seniors, and then introduced the panel. The panelists discussed how older New Yorkers were faring in light of the proposed program cuts on all levels of government.
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried praised the excellent leadership at the state’s health and aging offices, but noted that the deficit is real and will not improve in the short term. As state revenues decline, demand for services increases and all the “fat” has already been cut from the budget. Yet, he viewed the major shift in Medicaid to primary/preventive care as positive change. Some concerns that were raised include: proposed changes in the preferred drug program, how EPIC relates to Medicare D and the need to be sure that no senior goes without medications. There is a need to look carefully at changes in homecare delivery; while reform is fine, cutting for the sake of cutting is not. To achieve the mandated NYS balanced budget, Assemblyman Gottfried suggested using a one-third approach: 1/3 stimulus money; 1/3 budget cuts (from those areas least troubling); and 1/3 progressive action in taxing, e.g. by rolling back tax breaks for the wealthy.
Minna Elias gave the federal perspective on the budget cuts. She expressed hope with the new administration, although bi-partisan support has not been forthcoming. She stressed that tax cuts will not resolve the crisis, rather there is a need to spend in order to put people to work. The Economic Stimulus Plan is a stop gap measure and will include infrastructure spending, provide help to state and local governments, and assistance for vulnerable populations (in the form of a one time $300 payment to Social Security and SSI recipients). Seniors should benefit from reforms in health care, including new technology. Other benefits to NY seniors will include additions to Low Income HEAP, congregate and home delivered meals, and to Medicaid. A proposed summit that will include conservative policy makers, with the aim of looking at long term solutions for Social Security, Medicare, etc. will need to be closely monitored.
Caryn Resnick presented the city budget situation: Target cut from Dept. for the Aging (DFTA) is $4 million in 2009 and $10 million in 2010; DFTA is eliminating $1.75 million in administrative costs plus program reductions, e.g. home delivered meals will not be expanded; $1.1 million will be cut from case management contracts; and $5 million from senior centers overall. The goal is to preserve core services.
Mike Burgess discussed how the NYS Off. for Aging (SOFA) is dealing with a $14 million budget cut. There will be no cuts to programs such as Community Services to the Elderly, Expanded In-home Services to the Elderly (EISEP), Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORC’s), Caregiver Support, RSVP, and Respite. Cuts include: Social Adult Day Care, COLA’s for human service workers, and new demo projects. He urged support of HR684, a Medicare run drug program. Concerned with the cut in the state contribution to Supplementary Security Income (SSI), Mike sent a letter to the governor asking him to restore this to the state budget. We need to look at the whole picture, a family approach; bring generations together to survive these difficult economic times.
Mary Mayer of the NY Citizens Committee on Aging gave an overview of the committee’s elder poverty project and presented the latest publication of its recommendations: “Keeping the Promise”, available on this website. Muriel Beach of New York Statewide Senior Action Council announced a new initiative: the Senior Outrage Coalition, which will protest cuts to senior programs. Jim Collins updated the audience on the SSI Coalition’s advocacy to fight the proposed cuts to SSI.
Friday, May 15, 2009: Members-Only Meeting and Impact of the New York State Budget on Seniors.
The Meeting was attended by 19 members from 8 different organizations.
Business Meeting: Peter Gubernick, President of NYCCoA, presided. In order to study the fiscal challenges facing the Committee, the Board held a Retreat in January 2009 to come to some consensus about the strategic direction of the organization through 2010; 3 committees were set up or revived: Work Plan, Membership and Development.
Mary Mayer reported on the Work Plan committee, which revisited the 2004 Strategic Plan for guidance in moving ahead towards an uncertain future. The revised Mission statement and work plan now goes to the Board for approval. Mary then reported on the work of the Elder Poverty Task Force, giving a brief history of NYCCoAs efforts and presenting our latest publication Keeping the Promise:Recommendations to Reduce Elder Poverty in NYC, which can be reviewed on this website.
Jean Ovitt described the work of the Membership Committee. Recruitment of more members and membership involvement in the work of the Committee is essential if we are to succeed. Our current fiscal situation is very serious: there have been staff cutbacks and outside funding is bleak.
Impact of the New York State Budget on Seniors: Lani Sanjek, Chair of the NYS Office for the Aging (SOFA)/Governors Advisory Committee on Aging, explained the differences between the two advisory bodies, which hold 2 joint meetings. Handouts on the NYS Budget as it relates to seniors were distributed. Federal Stimulus dollars helped stopped the hemorrhaging to older adult programs. Overall there is no growth, despite demographics, and some serious gaps, especially in transportation, workforce issues and program innovations. NYCs budget saw the small Dept. for the Aging suffer draconian cuts.
There is no shortage of advocacy issues. On the federal level, we need to pay attention to Social Security, Medicare and Health Care Reform. Regarding NYS, the state is actively working with the Long Term Care (LTC) Task Force and SOFA on LTC policies, more flexible Expanded in-home Services to the Elderly Program (EISEP) regulations, adding a consumer directed component and strengthening NY CONNECTS, which has yet to integrate the city into the system.
Lani urged us to strengthen aging voices in the theater of engagement by coming together to develop joint strategy to influence policy. Statewide Senior Action Council is forming a work group, with a training component. Here is an opportunity to build on NYCCoAs policy work, especially on elder poverty. We do not need to reinvent new arenas, rather strengthen what weve got. A question and answer period followed.
The analysis of the recent Membership Questionnaires was shared with the membership, which then had an opportunity to offer their input on a wide variety of administrative and programmatic concerns facing the Committee.
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Fundraiser to Benefit New York Citizens’ Committee on Aging
Celebrate Autumn with Jazz.
Friday, November 13, 2009: A Frank Discussion about Health Care Reform
Attended by 22 persons
Speaker: Mark Hannay, Director of the Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign
Mark Hannay discussed the bill (H.R. 3962) recently passed by the House. The struggle to pass meaningful Health Care Reform is halfway there; historically, this is the first time any House of Congress has passed a comprehensive health care bill. Although the bill is not perfect, the status quo is not acceptable and the passage of legislation will have implications beyond health care, politically, economically and socially. Mark urged us to support the bill which makes it possible to build on – universal coverage and addressing out of control health care costs.
For details, see National Health Care Reform, Fall 2009: The Time is NOW and Medicare Provisions Now Under Consideration in House Health Care Reform bill (H.R. 3962) courtesy of Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign.
The audience raised questions about the House bill, which Mark commented on, including:
- financing of reform from Medicare “savings” - what that would mean to current benefits. System change will be piloted in Medicare - pay for performance vs. pay for procedure; pilot best practices; pursue fraud in Medicare; cut back subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans. Mark does not think doctors will “drop out”; the new emphasis on improving reimbursement to primary/preventive care will keep more primary care doctors and provider networks will overlap. Medicare reimbursements to doctors are guaranteed for 1 year under the House bill.
- getting “good” information out on reform to counter organized opposition. We need to explain to our constituents what is in the bill, especially changes in Medicare that help seniors.
- the issue of cost. Need to put costs in perspective over 10 years; savings refer to cuts in projected increases.
- the public option. This creates competition to the private insurance industry and requires insurers to improve their medical loss ratio (administration vs. benefit pay outs).
- affordability of health care insurance if all are required to be insured. Need a cap on out-of-pocket expenses and adequate subsidies to make insurance affordable in order for it to work politically.
- lack of coverage of reproductive health care in bill. Some felt this was a step backwards for women’s health.
- anti-trust issues. The House bill eliminates the anti-trust protection for health insurance companies.
new reform is a floor for states, not a ceiling, important to New York which goes beyond what is in federal bill, e.g. Medicaid home care. - penalties for opting out – are they sufficient to get healthy people to come in to the system?
- Tort reform- will it help? This plays a small part in the effort to curb growing health care costs.
The New York Citizens Committee on Aging will write a letter outlining our comments on Health Care Reform based on this presentation and the issues raised during this meeting. Mark urged us to exercise good judgment. Even without the public option, coverage to 28 million additional Americans is a big change. Decent benefits across the nation will be significant in states with less generous health care than New York. And closing the donut holes in Medicare drug plans will certainly benefit older Americans.
Wednesday December 2nd, 2009: Long Term Health Care: What You Should Know
Attended by 71 persons from 13 different organizations.
Speakers: Richard Mollot, Executive Director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, Peter Gubernick, President of the New York Citizens Committee on Aging, and Judy Anne Farrell, MPA, Associate Director, Government Affairs, Visiting Nurse Service of New York.
This meeting was co-sponsored by the Queens Inter-agency Council on Aging, and held at Queensboro Hall. Mr. Mollot and Ms. Farrell discussed the difference between long term congregate options: (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living, Adult Homes) and homecare options. They also described policy issues re: Nursing Homes, Assisted Living and homecare that we need to be aware of.
Mr. Gubernick discussed: Doing your Homework in advance, especially if you see problems developing, and why it’s important to know your options before there is an emergency. Information was given on doing research on Financial (Medicaid and Medicare) and Facilities – e.g. Medicare database has nationwide evaluations of Nursing Homes; NYS Dept. of Health has evaluations for licensed Asst. Living, Adult Home facilities. We learned about how the regulations are changing and tightening – e.g. the long lead time for “look back” if you are looking to protect your assets, as well as how to choose an elder care attorney.
As usual, a lively question and answer period followed the formal presentations.