Group fights cut to Medicaid in Illinois budget | News-Gazette.com
Debra Pressey - reporter: Wed, 05/04/2011
CHAMPAIGN -- A 6 percent Medicaid cut in Illinois' proposed state budget would endanger the elderly living in nursing homes, says the Health Care Council of Illinois, an organization drumming up opposition to this funding reduction around the state.
The organization is visiting 17 communities to raise awareness about the Medicaid cut, and was scheduled to hold a rally and news conference involving nursing home residents, their families and nursing home staff at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Helia Healthcare, 1914 S. Mattis Ave., C.
The proposed Medicaid rate cut would amount to a reduction of $170 million for Illinois nursing homes, along with a rollback in safety measures and 7,000 lost nursing home jobs, the organization projects.
Specifically, the organization says, the rate cut would eliminate funding for increased nursing home staffing, more care for the mentally ill and stepped-up nursing home oversight approved last year in Senate Bill 326.
The rate cut threat should be taken seriously because of the state's financial condition and a general attitude that fixing it requires everybody feeling the pain, says Pat Comstock, Health Care Council of Illinois' executive director.
Illinois ranks dead last among all 50 states in the rates it pays to care for nursing home patients, and nursing homes have already cut everything they can, she said.
"Our position is that we've already felt the pain," Comstock said.
The Champaign County Nursing Home could ill afford the reduction, according to its Administrator Andrew Buffenbarger.
"A 6 percent reduction would be enormous for us, because Medicaid represents about 50 percent of our revenue," he said.
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