Coalition to Protect Senior Care Gearing Up to Fight Bush Administration Med...( Intent to Slash Most Vulnerable S...),Health

Intent to Slash Most Vulnerable Seniors' Nursing Home Care to Face Severe Resistance

JOPLIN, Mo., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Commenting on a New York Times article today reporting the Bush Administration plans to cut U.S. seniors' Medicare-financed nursing home care in his FY 2009 budget to be unveiled Monday, the Coalition to Protect Senior Care said it will begin gearing up to fight the cut, as it did last summer and fall when the Coalition was active at the state and national levels in opposing congressional efforts to cut Medicare Part A nursing home benefits.

"As we successfully opposed the congressional effort to cut our most vulnerable seniors' Medicare-financed nursing home benefits, we will fight any attempt by the Bush Administration to slash the vital Medicare resources necessary to ensuring our oldest, sickest residents continue to receive the quality care they absolutely require," stated Lisa Cantrell, a co-founder of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, and a national spokesperson for the Coalition to Protect Senior Care. "Failure to provide the Medicare funding update the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) itself said last year was important to the continued provision of quality care is illogical, counterproductive, and bad health care policy."

Cantrell said the Coalition, in fighting the Medicare cuts, will be considering a variety of ways to convey its message in a variety of states, including the possible use of paid media and grass roots activities, as it successfully utilized in 2007. "We will continue to make the positive point that America's front line caregivers and clinicians have a shared responsibility with our lawmakers and the federal government to ensure every U.S. senior receives the quality long term care they need and deserve."

The Coalition to Protect Senior Care consists of the American Association for Long Term Care Nursing (AALTCN); the American Colleg
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