A plea for Medicaid changes

I have spent 34 years in long term care. this is pathetic and shows we truly do not value the life of the "less desirable" we are heading down the road to how the care was in the 60's and 70's.
I did not vote for Strickland! Shame on those who did.

connie wrote:

I have spent 34 years in long term care. this is pathetic and shows we truly do not value the life of the "less desirable" we are heading down the road to how the care was in the 60's and 70's.
I did not vote for Strickland! Shame on those who did.

I spent a long time in long-tern-care also, all the way up to a Director of Nursing and a Clinical Supervisor. I also have a mother who lives at home but can't live alone. Part of your comment is good...part is not. Some people don't value the elderly. They put someone in a nursing home, go visit once or twice a month and that's it. There are many people in long-term nursing homes that could live at home with assistance. And it's well known it would be considerably less expenense to the family, patient and state. Unfortunately, there is too much control by the for-profit long-term-care industry. This part I agree with you. The part I don't agree is being mean about voting for Mr. Strickland. I DID and am not unhappy. He inherited a horrible economy problem for this state from Mr. Taft. Do I agree with everything with Mr. Strickland...no. People need to stop bitching and complaining in this country. We need to TALK with our legislature. Inform what we belive would make this a better state & country. Research the facts. Some of the things I think we should do is change the law so that the budget has to be in the black line every year, period. Each bill / law is about one issue...not all of these little hidden issues. Every member of the legislature has to record what they voted, yes or no. If they are found guilty of illegal problems, they are immediately fired. Let's bring this state / country back to reality.

Once again the nursing homes are sticking it to both their patients and the government. They are getting $ 3.91 per day to provide these services to their patients. Instead of providing the services they are telling patients they are no longer covered and quietly tucking the money in their pockets.

We, the taxpayers, are getting screwed by the nursing homes and so are the patients that need the services.

While I agree with Connie on the budget, it is very clear that she requires no assistance in the areas related to this article. We are not talking about luxuries here. We are talking about people’s independence with their mobility, their ability to receive oxygen, and therapy. It is very easy to say lets adjust the budget here when you do not require these services. How can we look in the mirror everyday knowing that this is happening to these individuals? While I am not an expert on our state’s budget, I would say there would be more appropriate ways to save these dollars. I believe the legislators took the easy way out here and truly pointed these budget cuts toward the minority (our folks in long term care with special needs) in hopes that these voices would not be heard. Mr. Strickland should be ashamed for not standing up for the people who needed him to stand up for them the most.

When will we stop blaming the previous administration? 2010? Vote all of these idiots out. Reality is, nothing has improved since Strickland took office.
Thinking in CA, in the black? really think that's possible? You're in a state so in the red, along with most other dem states, I bet you voted for Obama too. Probably time for you to look at the facts. You think we'll come up with billions in Medicaid fraud and fix it? Think more government health care is going to fix things? Especially our budget? It is simply delusional.
I am all for talking to our elected officials, but fact remains they don't want to listen. I've seen a lot of these town meetings and they are simply disingenuous.
Government is the smoke, the media the mirrors.

If we want to control medical costs, eliminiate emergency rooms to illegal aliens, citizenship to the 400,000 anchor kids each year and medicaid overall.

All those who are not citizens and country of origin you have 30 days to leave. Tired of paying medical bills, food, and shelter for parasites.
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Great article! Hope this opens the eyes of the congress and public to how devastating these changes are gonna be!

I hate people on medicaid. It is a bloated welfare program that gives people free medical care on the backs of the productive members of society. As a health care provider, I see it every day. Dirty little secret - these people are not as poor as the media would have you believe.

Someone finally let the public know how this horrible new bill will affect our nursing home residents. I'm in the transportation end of the new
"bundling" mess. I have witnessed the nursing home residents get turned down for requested doctor appts. because they were told transportation isn't provided anymore. I've seen the nursing homes using other inadequate methods of transportation to save money at the risk of their resident getting injured. I totally agree with Sen. Miller about the financial incentive the nursing homes have in giving the littlest care to line their pockets. Like us, they haven't seen increases for care keep up with inflation. Go visit a few nursing homes to see how bad it is and this bill will only make the level of care worse. And for God's sake, the illegal immigrants have better healthcare than you and I do in this country. You can trim millions of dollars from the budget right there! Take care of our seniors and disabled, they deserve to live a full life.

Due to the medicaid budget cuts I lost my job last week. I have been working in long term care for 7 years. Our residents will suffer with less staff due to these cuts as well. The company I worked for is trying to make sure they can cover the costs for the medicaid residents. That I do understand. However it's going to mean less help in the end. I do believe the company will not limit these residents to services. It is sad and depressing knowing that medicaid has made these cuts. As usual they want someone else to pay. For the comment about not liking individuals on medicaid..Some of them can't help it..How about the 33 year old resident who has a brain injury and has to live in a nursing home for the rest of his life..Do you think he has the money to live there?? Of course not that's where medicaid comes in..Now there are some people out who abuse the system as well but you can't say you hate all who are on medicaid. We as a country need to take care of are elderly and disabled they deserve the same care as anyone else.

Just as I will not assume the person who stated, "I hate people on Medicaid", does not treat those on Medicaid differently, he should not assume those on Medicaid chose to be there by abusing the system. Yes, there are some individuals who abuse the system. Many have no choice as they have spent their life savings on the high cost of home-health care and/or nursing home care and are eventually forced to apply for Medicaid. Others are truly disabled and others work full-time and are still not able to provide coverage for their children or older relatives.

My grandmother worked hard her entire life, had saved over $300,000 and had a nice pension, but was still forced to apply for Medicaid during the last year of her life due to the incredible cost of LTC services. Some people do abuse the system, others have no other option. Don't judge when you are unable to put yourself in other's shoes.

All the above said, I can not afford to pay more for my health care coverage. There has to be a balance.