New Yorkers to Governor Hochul: "PPL Puts Lives Like Mine At Risk"

New Ad from Alliance to Protect Home Care Features Emotional Pleas from Home Care Users

ALBANY, N.Y., Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Alliance to Protect Home Care announced that it is launching its latest digital and TV ad as part of its larger campaign to protect New York's Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). Running across New York, the new seven-figure ad campaign features the emotional pleas from New Yorkers who urge Governor Hochul and legislators to reconsider the state's deal with Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), the controversial out-of-state company selected to take over New York's home care program:

"Dear Governor and legislative leaders. My personal caregiver means the world to me, but your plan to hand New York's home care program to PPL puts lives like mine at risk.

You know their record of failure. You know a rushed transition leaves all New Yorkers without care. And, you know lives are on the line. Please don't let me lose mine.

Tell the state legislature, stop PPL from hijacking our home care." 

"These New Yorkers are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled folks whose lives are at risk with PPL and their reckless history of mismanagement,"  said Bryan O'Malley, the Executive Director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care. "We will make sure Governor Hochul and our elected officials hear these testimonies and understand exactly what is at stake. We can't have New York become another PPL disaster"

The ad features five New Yorkers and their emotional testimonies about how PPL will impact their home care:

• Natalia Mendez is the Founder and Executive Director of Women on Wheels. Her C-67 spinal cord injury requires 24-hour home care assistance. Natalia lives and works in the Bronx, New York City.
• Vivian Wu lives with her husband in New York City. She started to use CDPAP four years ago as she needed support in her older age.
• Gabrielle Broder is a former special education teacher from Manhattan who became paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident. She has relied on CDPAP home care for 8 years.
• Athena Savides has lived in Brooklyn all her life. She was born with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy and is a full-time powerchair-user, and has been using CDPAP full-time since 2012.
• Alex Rodriguez is from Jamaica Queens, New York and has been using CDPAP since November, 2017.

The latest ad follows months of growing opposition and mounting lawsuits to Governor Hochul's plan to cut New York's home care program. Two recent lawsuits have alleged the Department of Health rigged the bidding process to favor PPL and led to Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) calling for an investigation. Just a few weeks ago New York's Republican Congressional Representatives sent a letter to House leadership urging them to stop federal funding for CDPAP until the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can review the impact of the proposed changes. Leaders from both parties and at every level of government have found rare common ground in opposing Gov. Hochul's plans, including: 15 New York City Council Members, 31 Assembly Members, and 49 State Senators.

On September 30th, Governor Hochul announced PPL as the company selected to run the state's entire consumer directed home care program - eliminating hundreds of small, local businesses in the process. Based in Georgia and backed by private-equity investors, PPL has a checkered history and a track record of failure.

The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance program provides essential, personalized care to elderly, sick, or disabled New Yorkers in the comfort of their own home. The program's home care workers help patients live independently and with dignity, assisting with everything from making meals and eating, to taking medications, to bathing, dressing, and tasks typically reserved for a nurse.

About The Alliance to Protect Home Care
Founded by the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Association of New York State, The Alliance to Protect Home Care is a coalition composed of New Yorkers who rely on home care, the caregivers who provide home care, and small business owners. Visit www.protecthomecare.org.

SOURCE The Alliance to Protect Home Care