http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...wn_nursing_home_cuts

quote:

The nation's nursing homes are perilously close to laying off workers, cutting services — possibly even closing — because of a perfect storm wallop from the recession and deep federal and state government spending cuts, industry experts say.
A Medicare rate adjustment that cuts an estimated $16 billion in nursing home funding over the next 10 years was enacted at week's end by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — on top of state-level cuts or flat-funding that already had the industry reeling.
And Congress is debating slashing billions more in Medicare funding as part of health care reform.

Read the whole thing. Scary stuff that can and will impact those of us who are private pay as well, especially if our LO is in a facility that accepts medicare and medicaid.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: T.O.R.P.,

***sigh***

This is an example of corporate extortion and terrorism. Rather than operate more efficiently or at a lesser profit, many places WILL choose to close or lay off workers... God forbid that stockholders and upper management would consider taking less... Do people really think that all those nursing homes, SNFs, assisted living places, etc. were built based upon NEED? Need, schmeed!!! They have been a very good INVESTMENT and tax shelter over the years!! As regulations are tightened, the greedheads will find something more lucrative in which to invest and leave the citizens holding the bag for care! THAT'S WHY a not-for-profit, public system should be at least OFFERED to compete and keep those for-profit outfits more honest!! Let the roaches who have swarmed the trough for so many years crawl back into the woodwork where they belong!! When BIG MONEY is taken out of the equation, health care can do a better job of serving people, which is what is supposed to happen in the first place!

What FOOLS they are in Washington to initiate Federal spending cuts in ANY kind of healthcare program at this point!! They are playing right into the hands of an out-of-control, for profit healthcare industry that has been feeeeeeding off the Medicare trough... and has been bleeding its end-users and policyholders dry for years! Rather than bleeding Medicare even more, reforms to Medicare should have been instituted with the rest of the healthcare reform package. By making cuts NOW, the industry will frighten the public into caving on reform and public option in the same manner as the health insurance companies who are threatening to raise their premiums if health insurance/care reform cracks down on them... They are trying to frighten citizens into complying, OR ELSE... Can you spell "EXTORTION"?

This situation is not difficult to resolve: other countries have done so years ago. The ONLY thing that keeps it from happening here is the for-profit greedheads who have bought the government! They are MAKING it SOOOOO complex that no one really understands what the heck they are talking about, which works out a lot better for THEM. By making all this purposefully impossible to understand, and really, really scary, they are obfuscating to manipulate the citizens to be afraid of reform & change! They ALWAYS start with scaring elderly people half to death 'cause they are the ones who get out and vote the most... Oh, they're gonna get even nastier if the government takes more of the food off their platters... It is PRIVATE health care that has mucked things up so badly! Those of us who remember non-profit hospitals or who grew up with government healthcare via the military know it is a decent system that does work! It quit working when so much regulation was lifted from the industry, opening it to the "free (for WHOM?) market" system.

Remember when a government Certificate of Need was required for a new hospital or facility to be built? Ya couldn't just build one like a McDonald's next to a Wendy's! How many lithotripsy machines, mammogram torture devices, CT, MRI & PET scanners does a community NEED to serve its population? How many out-patient surgical centers? How many rehab centers? Has the competition made the prices go DOWN any?

This is HEALTHCARE!! It's SUPPOSED to be altruistic, NOT corporatist!!!

Oops... sorry... got off on a rant there... sometimes I just can't help myself...

**Gulp** not good Torp not good at all