As a NY resident, my theory is that it was done for two economic reasons. 1) In New York State, nursing home residents have to pay for their own care. They must pay with all assets. Bank accounts are drained, home and car are sold, etc. Once they have no more money, the state then pays for their care. At ~$9,000 per month (upstate, which is cheap), many people make it there before they die. 2) If New York was hit by the virus harder than the other states, Cuomo could beg for more money from the federal government. He could tell everyone that Trump is completely heartless for not helping the hardest hit state and pressure him into giving Cuomo covid relief cash. NY would then be in good shape financially because of the influx of cash and a smaller drain through nursing homes.
My governor committed genocide to balance a budget.
There's a lot of truth here. Even before covid, it was common knowledge in the NYS Health Department that many nursing homes in NYS were poorly run and patients there received substandard levels of care. I also heard that the Governor was lobbied by the Greater NY Hospital Association to put the policy in place of forcing nursing homes to accept covid patients. The NYS Dept of Health has seen a mass exodus of high-ranking officials over their frustration with the Governor failing to listen to warnings and medical advice.
As a NY resident, my theory is that it was done for two economic reasons. 1) In New York State, nursing home residents have to pay for their own care. They must pay with all assets. Bank accounts are drained, home and car are sold, etc. Once they have no more money, the state then pays for their care. At ~$9,000 per month (upstate, which is cheap), many people make it there before they die. 2) If New York was hit by the virus harder than the other states, Cuomo could beg for more money from the federal government. He could tell everyone that Trump is completely heartless for not helping the hardest hit state and pressure him into giving Cuomo covid relief cash. NY would then be in good shape financially because of the influx of cash and a smaller drain through nursing homes. My governor committed genocide to balance a budget.
There's a lot of truth here. Even before covid, it was common knowledge in the NYS Health Department that many nursing homes in NYS were poorly run and patients there received substandard levels of care. I also heard that the Governor was lobbied by the Greater NY Hospital Association to put the policy in place of forcing nursing homes to accept covid patients. The NYS Dept of Health has seen a mass exodus of high-ranking officials over their frustration with the Governor failing to listen to warnings and medical advice.