Residence care employees get long-awaited minimal wage enhance

Good morning and welcome to Monday’s New York Well being Care e-newsletter, the place we hold you posted on what’s arising this week in well being care information, and provide a glance again on the necessary information from final week.

New York’s dwelling care employees obtained a raise of $2 per hour beginning Oct. 1, underneath a wage hike settlement included within the state finances handed earlier this 12 months, POLITICO’s Shannon Younger studies.

The fiscal 12 months 2023 spending invoiceincluded a $3 hourly raise for home care workers to be rolled out over two years. It raised the minimal for dwelling care employees in New York Metropolis and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester Counties from $15 to $17 per hour.

The minimal wage for these in all different areas, in the meantime, rose from $13.20 to $15.20 per hour. Upstate areas will see another 70-cent increase, bringing them to a $15.90 minimal wage, efficient on Dec. 31.

For years, advocates for long-term care have pushed Albany lawmakers to assist a 150 p.c improve within the minimal wage for these employees as a part of a “Truthful Pay for Residence Care” marketing campaign. They’ve argued that the finances’s $3 hourly improve does nothing to repair the state’s dwelling care workforce points.

WHAT WE’RE ALSO WATCHING THIS WEEK: 

— New Yorkers can quickly begin rising medical marijuana at dwelling underneath new rules that take effect on Wednesday. The principles enable licensed sufferers and designated caregivers aged 21-plus to develop as much as three mature and three immature hashish vegetation at a time. Designated caregivers can develop as much as six mature and 6 immature vegetation at one residence, if they’re rising for a number of sufferers.

— The Public Well being and Well being Planning Council will maintain a full council assembly on Thursday.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Shannon is off this week and subsequent week for trip. POLITICO’s Julian Shen-Berro is as soon as once more stepping in to assist with this article. Please ship all ideas, information and scoops to him at [email protected]. 

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FIRST MEASLES, THEN POLIO — POLITICO’s Shannon Younger: 4 years after discovering itself in the midst of the nation’s worst measles outbreak in many years, Rockland County is back in the spotlight for polio — resurrecting one other illness the U.S. thought had been conquered. In late July, the county, which is situated simply north of New York Metropolis, drew nationwide consideration after confirming that an unvaccinated resident, who developed leg paralysis, had contracted the revertant polio Sabin kind 2 virus, the primary confirmed case within the U.S. in almost 10 years.

Just a few weeks later, polio was detected in wastewater provides in New York Metropolis and on Lengthy Island — prompting native, state and federal well being officers to race to keep away from a repeat of the measles surge whereas Covid-19 and monkeypox continues to unfold in New York. The battle continues on all well being fronts. “On polio, we merely can not roll the cube,” state Well being Commissioner Mary Bassett harassed as she urged New Yorkers in September “to not settle for any threat in any respect.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a public well being emergency in early September, and it sparked high-level talks amongst high Biden administration officers involved concerning the virus’s potential unfold throughout the nation. However with a statewide polio vaccination charge amongst 2-year-olds of lower than 80 p.c — not together with New York Metropolis (the place that charge for youths underneath age 5 is 86 p.c) — and an excellent decrease charge in Rockland County, officers are confronted with a well-known process: convincing vaccine-hesitant individuals to get the photographs.

SCHOOL VAX COMPLIANCE — POLITICO’s Julian Shen-Berro: After transferring to curb abuses of a college vaccine coverage following a unprecedented measles outbreak within the New York Metropolis space, the state Legislature nixed spiritual and philosophical exemptions in 2019. It was a transfer that left a vocal group of oldsters and vaccine critics to hunt the slender carve-out for medical causes. And like clockwork, medical exemptions skyrocketed in 2020 at some non-public colleges in what one lawmaker known as “apparent” fraud.

When spiritual exemptions had been allowed, few colleges reported greater than a fraction of a p.c of scholars had obtained particular dispensation for medical issues. A 12 months after the spiritual issues had been scrapped, the speed of medical exemptions shot as much as double digits at some colleges. In a single faculty, the determine climbed to greater than 36 p.c.

The shift, uncovered by a POLITICO evaluation of state knowledge, mirrors an analogous end result in California and highlights potential gaps in oversight and enforcement that medical specialists warn might enable harmful illnesses to flourish. The revelation additionally comes as New York — the frequent epicenter of contagious outbreaks, from measles to West Nile — offers with a resurgence of polio, the continued unfold of Covid-19 and a minimum of one childhood case of monkeypox this 12 months.

WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU: This roundup is for you! Ship information ideas, well being ideas, concepts, criticisms and corrections to [email protected].

NOW WE KNOW — The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration wants to change its definition of “wholesome” packaged meals.

TODAY’S TIP — The Cleveland Clinic offers tips for beginning a exercise routine.

MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW Shannon @ShannonYoung413 on Twitter. And for all New Jersey well being information, take a look at Daniel Han, @danieljhan_.

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