Healthcare Expansion and Consolidation

Changes in the health care industry were already occurring before the Great Recession. But with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which insured millions of additional people, these shifts accelerated nationwide, including in the Mid-Hudson Valley.

In the Mid-Hudson Valley, these changes have been fueled by an aging population, changes in state policy, and general market conditions. Approximately 30% of the study area’s population, or 340,970 people, was 55 years or older in 2017, up from 229,088 in 2000, an increase of 49%. That is projected to grow to 35% of the population by 2030, according to Cornell’s Program on Applied Demographics.