Your members of Congress need to hear from you. Congress is considering legislation that includes cuts to the Medicaid program that exceed $700 billion and will result in the loss of health care coverage for over 13.7 million people over ten years. In addition, the legislation would block the nursing home minimum staffing standard from going into effect until 2035.
These actions would have devastating consequences for all Medicaid recipients, including recipients of long-term care supports and services. Any cut to Medicaid is a cut to all of Medicaid. When states receive less money to pay for Medicaid, they inevitably have to cut benefits, implement stricter eligibility requirements, and take other actions to reduce costs. Medicaid pays for roughly half of all long-term care in the United States. Five out of 8 nursing home residents rely on Medicaid to help pay for their care, while it helps 7.8 million individuals remain out of institutions by funding home and community-based services. These cuts would result in countless individuals losing access to these critical long-term care services.
In addition to devastating cuts to Medicaid, the legislation would block the nursing home staffing rule from going into effect until 2035. The recently finalized rule is estimated to save 13,000 lives annually and increase positive health outcomes for hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents. Blocking this rule will result in thousands of nursing home residents continuing to die each year from poor staffing.
We need you to contact your members of Congress and tell them to oppose any cuts to Medicaid and efforts to block the nursing home staffing standard!
