Malliotakis and Golden renew call to preserve spousal refusal

Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis and State Senator Marty Golden renewed their call to preserve spousal refusal at a press conference on Thursday, February 7 at the Saint Nicholas Home.

Spousal refusal is a provision in state law that helps caregivers pay for long-term care for their chronically ill spouses by separating their income and resources from that of their spouses who require home care due to health needs.

Thousands of New Yorkers benefit from spousal refusal, contended Malliotakis, who said that with the provision, the healthy spouse is able to keep a home, car and up to $113,640 in assets. Without spousal refusal, the couple would have to decrease spending and live the rest of their lives on $20,850 in assets, added the assemblymember.

For the second year in a row, Governor Andrew Cuomo has tried to eliminate it from the state’s executive budget.

“No family should be forced to spend their life’s savings and give up everything they’ve worked their entire life to earn in order to provide critical, long-term care for a loved one,” said Malliotakis. “The cost of living is high enough without the unforeseen financial burden of terminal illness, and the emotional stress is even more taxing when dealing with a loved one in turmoil.

“New Yorkers need the right of spousal refusal to protect their families and to protect what they’ve earned,” she went on. “I urge my colleagues in both houses of the legislature to fight for its inclusion in this year’s state budget.”

Golden added, “The new language in the executive budget, changing a single word from ‘or’ to ‘and’ regarding spousal refusal, causes an unbearable financial burden on New York’s most vulnerable. This new language forces the sick and elderly, who for the last 40 years have relied on this system, to lose all their assets and possibly their homes,” he said. “New Yorkers need to stand up for the seniors and the sick, and spousal refusal is a right which we must preserve.”