Budget Woes

I wonder how the next President will handle this issue when he or she takes office next year.

AAHSA has released the following statement from Larry Minnix, President and CEO.

The budget proposal President Bush submitted to Congress today sets out priorities that are completely at odds with the tremendous growth in this country’s aging population.

America’s elders deserve an aging-services system that will enable them to receive the services they need, when they need them, in the place they call home.

Yet, at a time when there are 10 older people on a waiting list for every federally-subsidized Section 202 housing unit that becomes available, the President’s budget proposal would cut funding by $195 million, or 25 percent. The President’s budget also falls short of providing sufficient funds to renew all project-based Section 8 accounts.

The members of the Greatest Generation now are in their 80s and 90s. They are nursing home residents, older people and their families living at home, many with dementia, Parkinson's disease or other serious chronic conditions. They need a wide array of health care services, both in nursing homes and in the community.

And yet the President is proposing to cut $28 billion out of Medicare over the next five years by denying skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies any inflation adjustment in their payments. This cut would remove the resources that long-term care providers need to cover the costs of qualified staff and other essential elements of quality.

Furthermore, we fear the automatic triggering of a 0.4 percent across-the-board Medicare payment cut if, as appears likely, general tax revenues are about to exceed 45 percent of Medicare funding.

We support the Bush Administration’s initiatives giving older people more choices to receive care in the community. And yet the budget proposal would hold even important service programs such as congregate and home-delivered meals and family caregiver support at current levels, without adjusting for the rapid growth in the elderly population. Social Services Block Grants, an important source of funding for adult day services, would be cut by 30 percent below current funding, and Alzheimer’s Disease demonstration grants would be zeroed out of the budget.

AAHSA and its members call on Congress to reject these damaging proposals and help us create the integrated, healthy and affordable system of aging services that will meet the needs of the Greatest Generation and those who follow after them.