Three long-term care groups criticized aspects of President Obama’s fiscal year 2010 budget proposal, which would allocate $828 billion to the Department of Health and Human Services, and increase Medicare and Medicaid funding.
Certain provisions in the budget would undermine efforts to create healthcare jobs and provide services for seniors, according to the American Health Care Association and its affiliates the National Center for Assisted Living and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care. A provision that would bundle together payments for post-acute care services “could lead to unintended, negative consequences for elderly beneficiaries, front line care staff, and the entire post-acute and long-term care sector,” according to a statement released by leaders of the three organizations. The groups also oppose a Medicare regulation that would cut seniors’ Medicare funding by approximately $840 million in fiscal year 2010.
Medicare funding would climb 6% to $452 billion in the budget proposal, according to an analysis. Medicaid would receive a 10% increase, boosting funding to $290 billion. The budget plan also would expand the budgets of the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health would see cuts. The proposal also would provide an extra $92 million to help ameliorate the nursing crisis.
