WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Delahunt joined with sixty-six other House members in opposing the Bush administration’s call for a $10 billion, five-year reduction in planned Medicare and Medicaid spending on long-term care.

Last week, Delahunt signed on to a bipartisan letter spearheaded by Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.  Here’s the text of the letter sent to the House Budget Commitee:

Approximately 80 percent of nursing home patients rely on Medicare or Medicaid to pay for their long-term care. Given that those 85 and older comprise the fastest-growing segment of our population, the need for long-term care will continue to increase significantly. Providing sufficient funding for Medicare and Medicaid will ensure that this ever-increasing population will have ready access to long-term care when the time arrives.

Despite the growing demand for long-term care, the existing financial mechanisms for Medicare and Medicaid are intertwined and increasingly dysfunctional. In the long-term care sector, Medicare covers the underfunding of Medicaid-financed nursing home care — calculated at $4.5 billion in 2006 by BDO Seidman.

However, the administration’s FY08 budget fails to account for this situation and calls for $10 billion in Medicare cuts to long-term care over five years.

We respectfully request that the committee continue to foster the stability of the long-term care community through reasonable inflation adjustments and fair reimbursement for unpaid Medicare copayments. This action will provide the critical policy needed by the long-term care profession to sustain the continued provision of safe, high-quality care in our nation’s nursing homes.

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