Larry Lipman, the Palm Beach Post's Washington reporter, tracks medicare policy making. His column, reprinted in the Austin American Statesman, looks at a bipartisan letter opposing a Bush administration proposal to cut $10 Billion in planned Medicare and Medicaid spending on long-term care over five years.
Tim Walz is one of the 67 members of Congress to sign the letter.
Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. organized the effort behind the letter, which sent to leaders of the House Budget Committee. The letter's text:
Approximately 80 percent of nursing home patients rely on Medicare or Medicaid to pay for their long-term care. Given that those 85 and older comprise the fastest-growing segment of our population, the need for long-term care will continue to increase significantly. Providing sufficient funding for Medicare and Medicaid will ensure that this ever-increasing population will have ready access to long-term care when the time arrives.
Despite the growing demand for long-term care, the existing financial mechanisms for Medicare and Medicaid are intertwined and increasingly dysfunctional. In the long-term care sector, Medicare covers the underfunding of Medicaid-financed nursing home care — calculated at $4.5 billion in 2006 by BDO Seidman.
However, the administration’s FY08 budget fails to account for this situation and calls for $10 billion in Medicare cuts to long-term care over five years.
We respectfully request that the committee continue to foster the stability of the long-term care community through reasonable inflation adjustments and fair reimbursement for unpaid Medicare copayments. This action will provide the critical policy needed by the long-term care profession to sustain the continued provision of safe, high-quality care in our nation’s nursing homes.
In addition to Representative Wal, other members of Minnesota's House delegation signed the letter: 3rd CD Republican Jim Ramstad, 7th CD DFLer Collin Peterson and 8th CD DFLer Jim Oberstar.
Note: The list of representatives signing the letter contains a mistake: Russ Carnahan, rather than Mel Carnahan, signed. Russ is the son of the late Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, who perished in a plane crash while campaigning against incumbent senator John Ashcroft. Russ was first elected to the House in 2004.
Comments