A lobbying group is taking its opposition to the state’s consolidation of a popular home care program to new heights.
The Alliance to Protect Home Care has spent “six figures” for an airplane to fly above the Egg auditorium, where Gov. Kathy Hochul will deliver her State of the State address today, as a means to protest the governor’s overhaul of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, which allows the elderly and disabled to hire their loved ones as caretakers.
The plane — which has a banner that reads “SOS: Save CDPAP Stop PPL” — will circle the venue between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. The ad buy also includes a digital billboard truck that will drive around Albany and make stops at the Executive Mansion and the Statehouse, as well as four billboards and TV ads that have been running all week.
The lobbying group, which declined to provide specifics on the cost of the ad blitz, represents some of the more than 600 middlemen companies that currently administer the program and are at risk of going out of business after financial services company Public Partnerships LLC, or PPL, takes control of the program.
“Whether it’s a truck, billboard, or even an airplane, we are making sure Governor Hochul and all of Albany hear the testimonies of the elderly and disabled New Yorkers whose lives are at risk with PPL,” Bryan O’Malley, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Home Care, said in a statement.
A representative from the governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The Alliance to Protect Home Care is one of the most active lobbying groups attempting to stop the transition of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, spending approximately $4.6 million in advertising expenses in 2024, according to state lobbying documents.
Hochul is aiming to cut costs in the $9 billion program by making PPL the sole administrator to pay home care workers and handle other administrative tasks. The decision has been met with blowback from the businesses that currently administer the program, as well as the 240,000 older New Yorkers and people with disabilities who use the program and fear that changes will reduce services.
The state has tried to assuage fears about care disruption through its own aggressive ad campaign. The Department of Health released a public service announcement featuring Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald last week to “dispel rumors” about the transition, including those stating that New Yorkers will lose access to home care services.
“There are businesses pushing a misinformation campaign to protect their own profits,” McDonald said in the video. “It’s meant to scare you into thinking that New Yorkers will lose access to home care – that’s false.”
