Richard Erb, president of the Maine Health Care Association, writes about balancing the budget on the backs of our nation’s elders in today’s editorial section of the Portland Press Herald.
Although we think of Medicaid as a program supporting the poor, about 75% of seniors in Maine nursing care communities depend on Medicaid (MaineCare) for payment. Maine is the oldest state in the nation, so this figure is not likely to go down, and if Medicaid and MediCare budgets are slashed, a primary payment source for Maine’s needy elders will be drastically reduced.
Sometimes the newspaper doesn’t keep articles on-line long, so you can read Maine’s elderly will lose as Congress gambles on Medicare cuts here.