Coalition to Protect Senior Care Ratchets Up Advocacy Efforts Against Proposed Medicare Cuts |
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Written by U.S. Insurance News
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Sunday, 30 March 2008 |
Expect the issue of senior care to be a big part of the conversation this election season-especially with the possibility of cuts to Medicare.
"We are stepping up our advocacy efforts commensurate with the growing threat of ill-conceived Medicare cuts," said Lisa Cantrell, a cofounder of the National Association of Health Care Assistants and a national spokesperson for the Coalition to Protect Senior Care.
On April 2, the coalition plans to conduct a Capital Hill "fly-in" of front-line caregivers from around the country to meet with lawmakers to discuss pending threats to Medicare-financed nursing home funding and how that would affect the needs of their elderly constituents. In addition, the coalition plans to hold briefings in those states that would be more heavily impacted by Medicare cuts and send letters from front-line caregivers to Members of Congress.
"With just seven months until the 2008 elections, America's front-line caregiver community intends to help focus citizen and elected official alike on the need to protect the funding that protects our oldest, sickest seniors," Cantrell said. "In the next several weeks and months, lawmakers will have choices to make in regard to health care spending priorities, and we will actively comment on key votes in an objective, non-partisan manner."
The Coalition to Protect Senior Care, which represents more than a dozen organizations with members in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, recently praised the efforts of U.S. Senators Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Susan Collins (R-ME), and U.S. Reps. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), in helping to generate opposition to the Bush Administration's proposed 2009 Medicare budget cuts.
"While the cost of providing quality care continues to rise-especially in regard to recruiting, training and retaining the key staff that make a difference in care quality and patient outcomes-the federal government should not and must not further undermine facility capacity and patient care itself with unwise spending decisions," Cantrell added. |
