To the editor:

Presently the Maine Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health and Human Services is proposing a devastating a 10 percent MaineCare Cut to Long Term Care. According to Maine Health Care Association, this results in an average loss of $24 per day for nursing home and a $20 percent cut for residential care facilities. These facilities are already stretched to the max, and cannot absorb this deep cut.

I urge you to contact our state representatives and state senators and urge them to ask members of the committee to not go ahead with these cuts which will affects some of Maine’s most vulnerable population.

There is already a shortage of beds for people seeking residential care who go into the system needing MaineCare. Residential care is for people that do not need skilled nursing care. (People with Alzheimer’s, and many youth fall into this category.) Unbeknownst to many, the wait lists are long, and most caregivers wait till they are in a desperate situation before resorting to placing a loved one in these facilities.

If you have a personal story to tell, please share it with your representative now. They need to hear how these cuts will impact you so that they care share it with the committee.

Go to http://www.maine.gov/legis/ and click on contact us to find your local representative, and state senator.

While many may think this will save the state a lot of money, according to the Maine health Care Association, it won’t. Every state dollar is matched by federal funds and ultimately generates $7.19 in economic benefit to the community and state. Cutting state spending on MaineCare nursing homes and residential care facilities by $8 million looses $21 million in federal matching funds. Residents will displaced, people will lose jobs, and families will have no where to turn for help.

Please stand up for your local long term care facility –-oppose these cuts.

While there are no good choices of where to cut the budget, there are better choices. This one is unconscionable.
BJ Bangs
Phillips