Cuomo’s Not Only Going to Destroy My Workplace, He’ll Destroy the Entire Region.

I work in a nursing home for a healthcare company in danger of closing if we don’t receive state aid.

Lauren Elizabeth

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York speaks during a March press conference on the COVID-19 outbreak. AFP via Getty Images

Imagine, if you will, being eighty eight years old living in a nursing home during a pandemic that prevents you from seeing your loved ones. A nursing home in one of the poorest, most rural counties in all of New York State. Imagine then, that the facility gets shut down, and the nursing homes nearby — aside from being vastly inferior to the one you’re currently living in — are in just as precarious a financial situation as the one you’re currently living in. The home can’t close down officially, of course, until they’ve found you, and all the other residents another home working in coordination with your families. But with everyone else in the surrounding area on the brink of financial collapse as well if the collapse hasn’t happened already, where are you going to go? Will you still be close to family? Will you still receive quality care?

This is the situation that could potentially be facing the residents in the nursing home where I work if Andrew Cuomo and the New York State government don’t provide some relief for the long term care facilities throughout the state.

My workplace is owned and operated by one of the largest employers in my county, employing over a thousand people. They have been a part of the area since the 1800s, now with two nursing homes, an assisted living facility, an independent senior living facility, multiple houses for disabled and cognitively impaired members of our communities, and expanding behavioral health and counseling services as well. As a healthcare company with a primary focus on the aging population and long term care facilities, Medicare and Medicaid not only compensate the company for the residents who use their services to afford to stay there, that’s also how employees are paid.

Due to Covid-19 all non-emergency surgeries have stopped and our rehabilitation operations that bring in most of our money have slowed significantly. Combine that with the fact that the company of course also had to buy a stockpile of PPE to protect employees and residents, and now with the new mandate that all nursing home staff…

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Lauren Elizabeth

Lauren is a writer & leftist with analysis on topics related to politics & policy. She can be reached at LaurenMartinchek@gmail.com or Twitter @xlauren_mx