Blog

• New York Senator Gillibrand Proposes Bill That Would Expand Social Security in Contrast to Republicans in Congress and Presidential Candidate Trump

  April 05, 2024: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced legislation she said would expand social security benefits for seniors. The Boosting Benefits & COLAs for Seniors Act would change the formula for the cost-of-living adjustments calculation, or COLA. ...Read more >

• KFF Health News: The Burden of Getting Medical Care Can Exhaust Older Patients

  March 27, 2024: Susanne Gilliam, 67, was walking down her driveway to get the mail in January when she slipped and fell on a patch of black ice. Pain shot through her left knee and ankle. After summoning her husband on her phone, with difficulty she made it back ...Read more >

• KFF Health News: America’s Health System Isn’t Ready for the Surge of Seniors With Disabilities

  January 17, 2024: The number of older adults with disabilities — difficulty with walking, seeing, hearing, memory, cognition, or performing daily tasks such as bathing or using the bathroom — will soar in the decades ahead, as baby boomers enter their 70s, 80s, an...Read more >

• From the NYS AFL-CIO About the Very Important Special Election in CD #3 February 13th

  January 15, 2024:   Our work to elect Tom Suozzi in NY 3 is well underway. Tom Suozzi has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO as well as the ARA/NYSARA because of his strong record for labor and his 97% voting record on Senior issues over his tenure in Cong...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Deep Flaws in FDA Oversight of Medical Devices, and Patient Harm, Exposed in Lawsuits and Records

  December 21, 2023: Living with diabetes, Carlton “PeeWee” Gautney Jr. relied on a digital device about the size of a deck of playing cards to pump insulin into his bloodstream. The pump, manufactured by device maker Medtronic, connected plastic tubing to an insu...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Extra Fees Drive Assisted Living Profits

  November 21, 2023: Assisted living centers have become an appealing retirement option for hundreds of thousands of boomers who can no longer live independently, promising a cheerful alternative to the institutional feel of a nursing home. But their cost is so crushi...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Save Billions or Stick With Humira? Drug Brokers Steer Americans to the Costly Choice

  September 21, 2023: Tennessee last year spent $48 million on a single drug, Humira — about $62,000 for each of the 775 patients who were covered by its employee health insurance program and receiving the treatment. So when nine Humira knockoffs, known as biosimilars, ...Read more >

• NYSARA to Hold its Biennial Election Convention May 18, 2023

  March 06, 2023: The 2023 NYSARA biennial election convention, postponed from 2022 because of COVID, will be held on May 18, 2023 from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm at NYSUT headquarters at 800 Troy Schenectady Road, Latham, NY.  There will be many orders of business in...Read more >

• Transportation to Medical and Other Appointments in New York State

  February 14, 2023: One of the areas of concern and need for the 850 seniors that took the NYSARA/NYSOFA Survey was the dilemma of not being able to find transportation to medical or other appointments.  That help is available through many county office's for the...Read more >

• NYSARA and the NYS Office for the Aging Survey on Services for Seniors 870 Surveys Now Completed

  February 14, 2023: We asked you last week to take part in a survey on services for Seniors in New York.  Thus far 870 people have taken part in the survey.  For those of you that have NOT taken the survey we ask that you log on to and take the survey. Ne...Read more >