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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
April 2001 |
Comments for the Indiana Statehouse:
Key issues - budget cuts, Medicaid, nursing home tax
By Jane Fribley
Balancing the state budget on the backs of the powerless seems to be the projected solution at the Indiana General Assembly.
The budget. for the next two years beginning July 1 passed in the House Ways and Means Committee. Their very generous version would spend all of the state's new revenue, tap a Rainy Day Fund intended for economic recessions and deplete a Medicaid reserve fund. This bill, HB #1001, is now in the Senate Finance Committee, which is in the process of paring back much of the proposed spending.
Senators on both sides of the aisle agree with the need to bring spending more in line with lower anticipated revenue but disagree on where to make cuts. After the Senate passes a budget bill, a House-Senate conference committee will try to work out a compromise before the April 29 deadline for ending the session. Otherwise, the lawmakers will have to return for a special session, as has been necessary for the past several years, to agree on a budget before June 30.
Hoosier families with developmentally disabled members are panicked that additional funding for Medicaid home caregivers has been stripped from HB #1001. The House Ways and Means Committee has stated the funding will not be restored unless the governor closes the Muscatatuck Center, home for 260 mentally disabled people. Where will these patients go? Too often, when we close these institutions, the patients end up as homeless street people.
HB #1866 - Daily Bed Tax in Nursing Homes - has passed in the House and been sent on to the Senate. Medicaid costs are expected to swell from $3.5 billion to 4.33 billion by 2003.
Adding $5 a day to the cost for nursing home patients who pay their way is not the way to solve financial problems of the 70 percent on Medicaid funds. Nursing homes lose money on Medicaid patients. Many already make up the difference by overcharging other patients. So far this year 11 homes have closed with the cost of caring for a large majority of Medicaid patients being a major reason.
The bed tax is a self defeating plan and unfair to paying patients. Increasing their costs by over $1,800 a year will hasten for many the dreaded time when they too will run out of funds and for the first time in their lives be on welfare - Medicaid.
It is sinful for our society not to care for those who are aged or ill and run out of money. But this should be the responsibility of the total society, not of those who are already ill.
HB #1100 would enable the public to view the legislature in action and would be good for democracy, says Sen. David Ford, the Senate sponsor. It would extend Indiana's government to its citizens via video, audio and Internet coverage. Make your voice heard by contacting:
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House of Representatives: 800/382-9842 or 317/232-9600 or 9700
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E-mail: H#@ai.org (insert district number for #)
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Senate: 800/382-9467 or 317/232-9400
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E-mail: S#@ ai.org
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Gov. O'Bannon: 317/232-4567; e-mail: fobannon@state.in.us
To learn up-to-date status of a bill, call 317/232-9856
Last updated January 14, 2004