Section 4000. Legislative declaration

The legislature finds and declares
  that hospice is a socially and  financially  beneficial  alternative  to
  conventional  curative  care for those afflicted by terminal illness. It
  further finds that hospice is a  unique,  interdisciplinary  program  of
  palliative  and  supportive  care  to  meet the stresses associated with
  illness, death and bereavement through the innovation and reorganization
  of home and traditional inpatient health services.
    In recognition of the value  of  hospice  and  consistent  with  state
  policy  to  encourage  the  expansion  of  health  care  service options
  available to New York state  residents,  it  is  the  intention  of  the
  legislature that hospice be available to all who seek such care and that
  it become a permanent component of the state's health care system.