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You don’t win arguments with half-truths and TikTok “facts,” but those are exactly the weapons in Governor Kathy Hochul’s arsenal as she attacks the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). CDPAP gives people with disabilities the freedom to manage their own care at home, with caregivers they know and trust. Staffing shortages have made it impossible for traditional home care agencies to accommodate all the people who need support, and CDPAP fills that gap.
Many hoped for positive change when Hochul took office, but polls show her voters are losing faith. Like her ousted predecessors, she is circumventing checks and balances, and New Yorkers are fed up with big business always putting itself first.
Hochul’s TikTok “research” misleadingly suggests that local businesses or financial intermediaries (FIs) can manipulate eligibility for CDPAP. In reality, Medicaid recipients are screened for eligibility by unbiased medical professionals. FIs provide critical support by ensuring caregivers meet requirements and are paid on time. Currently, people can choose and change FIs as needed. Choice is fundamental to CDPAP, so why does the governor want to take it away and create a monopoly?
Hochul claims she wants to prevent fraud, but instead of improving oversight and punishing the few wrongdoers, she is putting 600 local companies out of business and awarding a $40 billion, multi-year contract to a company from another state. Who benefits? Not her voters. Other states that have tried this – on a much smaller scale – have had disastrous results. Caregivers were not paid for months, leading to high staff turnover, and consumers suffered. Is that why she is blocking the auditor’s usual review process? What a con.
As a mother of a child in need of full-time care, I feel like we are reliving a dark chapter in history. Instead of celebrating the anniversary of the ADA law, Hochul’s backroom deals are undermining it. As we recover from a global pandemic and our hospitals and nursing homes are open on a limited basis, more home care is needed. Hochul is not allowing research on the topic and is accelerating the timeline, which will only exacerbate the problem.
Rep. Marc Molinaro demanded an apology, saying that Hochul was the real fraud and not CDPAP as she claimed. State Senator Gustavo Rivera, chairman of the State Senate Health Committee, also expressed his disdain for the governor’s comments and stressed the importance of protecting the integrity of this program.
Dismantling CDPAP to run it with just a single financial institution would be a logistical nightmare that would directly affect more than half a million people (250,000 consumers plus 300,000 caregivers). Hochul has a choice: either get it right or be stubborn and ignore the people she is putting at risk.
Heather Burroughs grew up in Rochester, is a mother of four children with diverse needs, has supported families in education and healthcare, and is now the Director of Advocacy at AutismUp.
