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Sununu Praised for Helping Lead Senate Effort to Stop Bush Medicare Cuts from Going into Effect
NH Senator Leads Successful Bipartisan Effort in Congress to Stop $3.8 Million State Medicare Cut
CONCORD, N.H., July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- State and national long term care leaders today praisedNew Hampshire Senator John Sununu for helping to lead a successful, bipartisan effort in Congress to stop the Bush Administration from moving forward with a Medicare regulation that would have cut Medicare-funded nursing home care by $5 billion over the next five years and $770 million in fiscal year 2009. Senator Sununu's action ensuresNew Hampshire seniors will be protected from cuts of $3.8 million in the year ahead.
"The Bush Administration's planned Medicare cuts not only threatenedNew Hampshire seniors' access to quality health care throughout our state, but would have also negatively impacted our state and local economy," stated John Poirier, President of the New Hampshire Health Care Association (NHHCA). "Senator Sununu's effort inWashington to protect his most vulnerable constituents reflects the independent thinking and actionNew Hampshire needs, deserves and appreciates."
"The bottom-line news from today's announcement is thatNew Hampshire's Medicare beneficiaries are deservedly the big winners," stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), inWashington, D.C. "Thanks to Senator Sununu,New Hampshire seniors will retain ready access to the high quality care they need and deserve."
Alan G. Rosenbloom, President of the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, stated, "From a policy standpoint, this is an outstanding development in terms of both meeting seniors' changing health care needs, and doing so in a manner that uses Medicare funds efficiently. Senator Sununu deserves enormous credit for working in an intelligent, collegial, bipartisan manner to help achieve today's positive results."
Poirier also noted that Medicare cuts fromWashington would have had a severely negative impact on the strength and viability ofNew Hampshire's Medicaid program. "Because nursing homes rely on Medicare to make up for chronic underfunding by the Medicaid program - an average of $13 per day for every Medicaid beneficiary in nursing homes nationwide - it was critically important to ensure Medicare reimbursements remain steady and consistent," Poirier concluded.
SOURCE American Health Care Association
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