Long-term care associations launched grassroots campaigns last month to lobby against proposed Medicare cuts.
“Our No. 1 mission is [to persuade Congress] not to take away the market basket,” said Larry Minnix, president and CEO of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.
He was referring to a House healthcare reform proposal that would trim $33 billion to $44 billion in Medicare pay to nursing homes. Such a cut would eliminate the market basket, the annual Medicare payment cost-of-living increase. Minnix noted that he also was pushing the Senate not to include such a reduction.
The American Health Care Association estimates that cuts in the healthcare reform bill could jeopardize 50,000 jobs nationwide in 2010 alone.
Both the House and Senate were to resume discussions on healthcare reform this month.
From the September 01, 2009 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
