State Cuts Threaten Worthy Care Endeavors

As we hurtle toward another state budget deadline later this spring, those of us who rely on government financing to care for society’s poorest and most frail individuals are yet again confronted with another budget plan aimed at slashing funds for programs and services.

You would think we could get off this roller coaster.

In order to address New York’s state deficit woes, Governor Paterson wants to cut Medicaid funding for nursing homes, hospitals, home care, personal care and other areas.  

Health care cuts in the Governor’s budget total some $1 billion.

One thing people should understand – these are cuts to the services providers such as VillageCare bring to needy individuals and families.  They are services for people who really have no where else to turn, for those who have few, if any, resources of their own to access life-sustaining, and sometimes life-saving, care.

Cuts such as the Governor proposes would have an adverse impact on the services that are provided for frail older adults and persons living with HIV/AIDS.  Last year at VillageCare, we served more than 13,000 such individuals with programs and assistance that were supported pretty much in only two ways:  Funding from government, largely Medicaid, and private donations from individuals and foundations.

Back in the 1970s, the founders of our organization chose a mission of community service when they created the not-for-profit Village Nursing Home from the remains of a failed proprietary nursing home.  Following that mission has not always been easy, because there have been repeated times requiring great effort in order to obtain the necessary resources to sustain the work that we do.

VillageCare is not unique in that regard.  The vast majority of not-for-profit organizations that are committed to providing their communities with needed health care services have faced this struggle to one extent or another.

As an organization, we have worked hard since the mid-‘70s for those in need, leading responses to the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80s and ‘90s and, during the past decade, striving to create care for seniors that respects their desires to have as much independence and control as possible over their waning years and progressive frailty.

Again, we are not necessarily unique.  All our colleagues in other non-profit health care organizations with similar missions are determined to provide the communities they serve with like opportunities.

And that brings us back to Governor Paterson’s budget.

Long-term care – that’s what we call services such as nursing homes and home care – has been repeatedly hit at the state level by funding cuts in recent years, mostly through significant reductions in Medicaid.

Over the past three years, cuts to nursing homes alone have totaled some $1 billion, according one of our statewide associations, the Continuing Care Leadership Coalition.  CCLC reports that over the past 36 months, health care overall in the state has been cut by $2.2 billion.

Cuts proposed by the Governor for the 2010-11 state fiscal year would cut another $140 million from nursing homes, with many providers facing additional potential reductions through a new “regional pricing” plan that’s to come in the spring of 2011.

Health care in general, through sustained and repeated state cutbacks, has contributed mightily to efforts by the State to achieve fiscal stability in the face of huge deficit spending.

Long-term care providers such as VillageCare in particular have also been leaders in reforming by creating an array of new services that rely less on institutional care and more on community services.  This has had the effect of enabling providers, and the State, to serve far more needy individuals without significantly increasing spending.

Or, as the bean-counters would say, “To get more bang for the buck.”

But providers can’t continue to absorb these huge cutbacks without an undesirable impact on care.

There are things you can do to help.  Contact your state senator and assemblymember.  Tell them to say no to the Governor’s further cuts to health care and to long-term care.

Another of our statewide organizations, the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (NYAHSA), has made this easy for you to do.  Go to their website using this link, http://tinyurl.com/nybudget, and follow the directions there.  It’s as simple as that.

There’s another thing you can do to help not-for-profits – make a donation.

To do that for VillageCare, go to our website, www.villagecare.org, and click on the “donate now” button.

Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated, not just by not-for-profit providers, but especially by the people they serve.