Bush Long Term Care Cuts Gaining nationwide Bipartisan Criticism

Once again, President Bush’s attempts to save and/or move money around are being called “ill-considered” and “a serious detriment to seniors and long term care.”

Bush has proposed $770 million in cuts to Medicare A national nursing home funding cuts scheduled to take place in a few weeks.  Not only is the bill considered harmful to seniors, even Mike Leavitt, Health and Human Services Secretary and key members of the House and Senate are working hard to garner opposition to these cuts. 

The consensus is that the Bush Administration’s proposed cuts will drastically and negatively affect high quality skilled nursing care for seniors.  There is also extreme concern that reductions of this magnitude will severely diminish access to nursing home care and compromise quality of care received by the nation’s seniors.

In addition, there are studies and reports by the American Healthcare Association and Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care showing the economic impact of the proposed Bush cuts.  Not only would they compromise access, quality and care, they will also have a net negative economic impact of $4.5 billion for 2009, approximately $1.8 billion in lost wages, 43,530 lost jobs, and $661 million in lost federal, state and local taxes.

“In the final analysis, the Administration’s ill-considered change to Medicare policy would have unfortunate results for patients, taxpayers and the Medicare plan itself,” was the comment by Patty Cullen, President of the Care Providers of Minnesota.  Leaders from South Dakota, Maine, New Hampshire and other states have explained in various ways that because nursing homes rely on Medicare reimbursements, these cuts would have a visible and devastating effect on state Medicaid programs.

Whichever side of the issue people are on, it is good that both sides are being revealed and it would be good for all sides to truly study the situation – and the information from all those who are making points about how this could seriously cripple nursing home services to seniors.  It is important to explore the facts before it is too late.

Filed under: General-Medicare

Tags: Bush Gains Bipartisan Criticism, Bush medicare cuts, Long Term Care Cuts, Long-Term Care, Nursing Care Cuts