Save Medicaid (Feb 2025)
Friends of Residents in Long Term Care would like to share two timely pieces of information to encourage you to share your stories on how Medicaid supports those in long-term care as cuts to the program are being proposed at the Federal level.
From the National Consumer Voice:
"Congress is considering proposals that would significantly cut funding for Medicaid. These cuts would have a devastating impact on older adults and individuals with disabilities. Cuts to Medicaid would result in decreased access to Long Term Supports and Services (LTSS), such as nursing home care, and Home and Community-Based Services. Quality of care would likely decline, and consumers could lose critical protections."
How to Take Action and learn more:
• Join Consumer Voice and other advocacy organizations around the country to tell Congress: Don't cut Medicaid! Call your members of Congress at 866-426-2631. Tell your members of Congress that cuts to Medicaid could harm millions of people receiving LTSS.
• Email your member of Congress using this resource from The National Consumer Voice.
• Learn more about this issue in a recent podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7beRpA4Gl0.
• Review: Medicaid Fact Sheet: Preserve Medicaid Healthcare: Oppose Medicaid Cuts to learn more.
From Justice in Aging:
"As Congress considers proposals to restrict or cap federal Medicaid funding to states, it is critical for advocates to understand how the various forms of cuts would harm older adults. Justice in Aging’s new issue brief, How Medicaid Funding Caps Would Harm Older Adults, outlines how the proposals being introduced now as part of budget reconciliation would underfund Medicaid and shift financial liability to states, forcing states to cut services and enrollment, to the detriment of older adults. The burden would fall particularly hard on individuals needing long-term services and supports."
Nursing Home Staffing Standards
In April 2023, President Biden released an Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers. Public comments were received and a final rule was established in April 2024. Read more from The National Consumer Voice.
Take Action: Urge your member of Congress to Support Safe Staffing in Nursing Homes
AARP Action Alert: Congress MUST protect vulnerable seniors
AARP One Pager: Support the Nursing Home Staffing Rule