ALBANY, NY — Thousands of caregivers, still reeling from three years of the pandemic, will march on the state capitol and in the MVP Arena on Tuesday, March 21, beginning at 10:30 a.m. 

According to a news release, they plan to call on Gov. Hochul and legislative leadership to reverse healthcare cuts and to close the  Medicaid coverage cap. 

The protest will include health-workers union 1199SEIU members from across New York State. They work in nearly all jobs in  hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies, clinics, research labs, universities, in-home care, and in other health care settings. 

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera  and other legislative leaders are expected. 

The rally itself is expected to begin at 12:45 p.m. at the MVP Arena, located at 51 S. Pearl St. 1199SEIU president George Gresham and legislative leaders will speak at 1:30 p.m. 

New York’s healthcare system, a spokesperson for 1199SEIU stated, is facing an unprecedented crisis. Three years to the month that the  first COVID case was confirmed in New York, patients and workers continue to face the aftershocks of the pandemic. 

Safety-net hospitals are on the brink of closure, emergency rooms are overflowing,  nursing home residents face interminably long wait times for bedside care, and homecare services are  becoming ever harder to come by, the spokesperson said. 

“Gov. Hochul’s proposed budget utterly fails to grasp the gravity of this crisis. Rather than making the  necessary investments to stabilize healthcare services, the proposed five percent Medicaid rate increase is  entirely offset by the elimination of savings from the 340b drug pricing program and the cut to the indigent care pool.”

The budget includes cuts of $700 million from safety-net hospitals, raises the pay of home care workers to $3 above the minimum wage,  reduces wages for consumer-directed home health aides by $4.09/hour, and “fails to provide adequate funding increases to nursing homes as they struggle to recruit and retain staff to comply with nursing home reform laws,” the spokesperson continued. 

The union calls for a $2.5 billion investment in health care in the FY2024 budget, and it noted that Senate and Assembly leadership included many of the commitments in their respective budget proposals.

• Increase Medicaid reimbursement rates by 10 percent for hospitals and 20 percent for nursing homes, with no offsets. 
• Restore the $700 million in safety-net funding, and increase it by an additional $600 million. 
• Address the disparity in reimbursement rates in upstate New York, which are approximately  20 percent lower than in New York City and its surrounding communities. 
• Preserve the investment made last year in Fair Pay for Home Care to stabilize the home care workforce, and undo the drastic proposed cuts to wages for workers employed through the consumer-directed program. 
• Raise the minimum wage to $21.25 by 2027, followed by indexing.