The elderly, and those who intend to get old (which I’m assuming is most of us) are facing a crisis in New York.

The population is aging nationally, and New York state is no exception. The Lerner Center at Syracuse University reports that 3.2 million New Yorkers, or nearly one in six people, are currently 65 and older, and the older adult population is growing faster than any other age group in the state.

Many, if not most of this population want to age at home.

Senator Rachel May, chair of the Senate Committee on Aging, told Capital Tonight that allowing seniors to age at home is critical for a number of reasons.

“There’s the issue of independence and dignity. People want to be in their homes and part of their communities as long as they can. But it also saves the state a lot of money,” she explained, because nursing care is much more expensive.

Here’s the problem: The number of older people who are looking to age at home vastly outpaces home care workers looking for a job.

The people needed to help toilet, bathe, feed and run errands for the elderly are simply not jumping at the chance to work in this field.  

Caregivers and others who testified at a state hearing on the caregiver crisis this week told lawmakers that they can earn more working at McDonald’s, so why opt for a much tougher job?

“There was one man who had been a stockbroker and then he switched careers after 9/11 because he really wanted to be caring for people,” May said. “But the pay is low,”

Exacerbating the situation, is the state’s minimum wage which just went up to $15.00 per hour for fast food workers.

“Which is great for them,” May said. “But it’s still $12.50 for everyone else and a lot of home care workers make minimum wage, so they’re not competing.”

Another issue facing home care workers is stability. If their charge dies or is taken to the hospital, the worker is frequently out of a job.

“Homecare workers want to be working,” May explained. “Even though there’s a shortage of them, they don’t always get matched up with physicians that enable them to keep working every week as they need to.”

One fix for this issue is May’s own “Fair Pay for Home Care” bill. 

“It would set the minimum wage for homecare workers at one and half times the regional minimum wage,” May said. “That is estimated to bring tens of thousands of more people into the field.”

In other words, people would be far more willing to work if they could make a living wage and support their families. 

It’s not just a matter of passing the law; it’s also a matter of paying for the law. The state would need to ensure that Medicaid is reimbursing at the right rates.

The State Senate had allocated $624 million for home care workers in the state budget, but the allocation was not included in the final document.

“Really, if we’re going to do this right, it’s about $4 billion,” May said. “A CUNY study that came out recently showed that if you invest that $4 billion, you get a return on that investment of about $7.6 billion because you’re saving all of that money on nursing care, which is so expensive. 

May, again citing the CUNY study, also said the increase would pull people out of poverty, enabling home care workers to stop relying on public assistance, which many now do.