NYSUT and its Health Care Professionals Council were pleased to see Gov. Hochul’s commitment to grow the state’s health care workforce by 20 percent over the next five years. The union is urging lawmakers to support the objective.
“It is a very ambitious goal,” said NYSUT Second Vice President Ron Gross, who leads the union’s health care contingent, “one that requires dedication and outreach to those health care professionals and facilities for whom this goal is designed.
“We must do everything possible to incentivize existing nurses to remain in the profession while also taking steps to attract the next generation of caregivers.” The union also seeks to restore the mission funding, or subsidy, for the
three SUNY hospitals. Properly funding these vital teaching institutions that were front and center in the war against COVID–19 will help ensure New York is ready for the next health crisis. It should be restored to the 2017–18 level of $88 million.
NYSUT supports the governor’s proposal to increase funding under the Medicaid Global Cap, as well as various health care reforms in the executive budget proposal. But the group vowed to condemn any cuts that would adversely affect the health care workforce or facilities.
You can find NYSUT’s legislative budget testimony on health and Medicaid at nysut.org/testimony.