As August Congressional Recess Concludes, Polls Show Seniors, General Public Strongly Opposed to Medicare Cuts in Congressional Health Reform Plan,...(26% margin Americans believe senior citi...),Health

The 9/2 Florida Times Union, in a story entitled, "Proposed Medicare Cuts Have Nursing Homes Worried," reports on a Jacksonville-area event in which seniors' advocates and nursing home staff warned Florida's Medicare funded nursing home care benefits will be cut $3.5 billion over ten years to finance health care reform. Lisa Cantrell, President of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, spoke at the Southlake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Mandarin, FL. "To Cantrell's side, propped against a wall, was a large, scroll-like petition urging Florida's congressional delegation to rethink the cuts. . . Patricia Johnson, 68, signed the petition with her left hand, as her dominant right hand remains paralyzed from a recent stroke. 'If they have to cut staff here,' her husband, Artie, said, 'it would be down to what I would call the bare minimum.' He added his name, too."

The 9/4 Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, in a story entitled, "Residents Petition Against Any Medicare Cuts," reports that "Caregivers, residents and family members gathered at the Riverstreet Manor Nursing Home Thursday to sign a petition to members of Pennsylvania's congressional delegation asking that any health care reform bill does not include crippling cuts in Medicare funding." The story notes "Representatives of The Coalition to Protect Senior Care are touring the country's nursing homes asking them to urge their respective members of Congress not to support the currently proposed health care reform measure as long as it includes Medicare funding cuts for seniors in nursing homes by more than $32 billion over 10 years. In Pennsylvania, which would be the seventh hardest hit state, the cuts would
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