Today in Texas, the President of the Texas Health Care Association informed Texas leaders that due to budget cuts, Medicaid funding intended for nursing home care and services will be shorted by $25.6 million dollars. This cut will leave seniors at risk and possibly eliminate jobs on the front line. In part of the national health care reform that is set to take place in the future, the president of the THCA was informed that an estimated $15 billion in Medicare nursing home benefits will be cut as well.
While these cuts are slowly diminishing Medicare and Medicaid funding, patients are still being taken on at facilities across the state. Elderly patients will continue to come in for treatment even though, the budget is not where it is suppose to be. Sometimes, elderly patients need more intensive care but now they can barely get it due to these budget cuts. You can't turn them away or tell them to take something and come back in the morning. They have to be treated, regardless of the funding problems that are occurring.
As part of national health care reform, Graves noted, the federal government just cut nearly $15 billion in seniors' Medicare-funded nursing home benefits – the vital funds needed to sustain high quality care and preserve key staff jobs in communities throughout Texas. "But now — even after deep new federal cuts — state leaders wrongly intend to cut Texas seniors' state Medicaid funding an extra $25.6 million. With Texas already one of the lowest states in seniors' Medicaid funding, lawmakers need to ask themselves how they can justify jeopardizing quality care, good local jobs, and the rehabilitative care that allows increasing numbers of their elderly constituents to return home."
