DEBI ROSE CALLS FOR IMPROVING HOUSING AND HEALTH CARE FOR
STATEN ISLAND’S SENIOR CITIZENS
-- “Our Senior Citizens Are Being
Unfairly Squeezed After Working Hard And Paying Taxes All Their Lives.”
PORT RICHMOND, STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — New York City
Council Candidate Debi Rose today called for an expansion of several city,
state, and federal health care and housing programs to ensure that senior
citizens have access to affordable housing and medical care.
“Senior citizens are our parents, grandparents, aunts,
uncles – they are the backbone of our families, and they should not have
to worry about where they live or whether they can see a doctor,” Ms. Rose
said,
Ms. Rose also called for a sound infrastructure for those in
the “sandwich generation” – those people caring for both their
aging parents and their children – so that they are not overwhelmed and
overburdened. This means enhancing Medicaid, making prescription drugs more
affordable, adopting a patient’s bill of rights, and proving more senior
living facilities on Staten Island.
“Long term care, including home health care and
nursing home care, must be made available to senior citizens without requiring
them or their spouses to become impoverished,” Ms. Rose said.
“Accessing Medicaid for long term care shouldn't mean you eventually lose
your house or Medicaid has a claim against your estate.”
Ms. Rose said that New York City must find creative ways to
cut costs and supply adequate home care – such as shared aids and assisted
living – and that day care services should be available for senior
citizens on Staten Island.
“We must provide adequate senior citizen housing and
assisted living on Staten Island,” Ms Rose said. “We need to create
senior housing in our communities by adaptive reuse of existing buildings, such
as Seaview Hospital and the Farm Colony.”
These facilities should provide affordable services for
seniors including shared health aids, laundry and meal services, Ms. Rose
added.
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