Most of our nation is struggling with the budget implications brought on by our economic woes. The majority of states are experiencing budget shortfalls in the billions of dollars. The Health and Human Services divisions are a significant piece of each states’ expenditure. With that, the senior care profession is a significant piece of the Health and Human services budget. Thus, it would be logical to assume that the senior care profession should prepare for budget cuts. I’m here to tell you that this would be short-sighted and possibly have a negative impact on most states’ budgets.
The federal government contributes approximately fifty-percent of funds that are spent on long-term care. This percentage will increase with some of the federal programs being proposed. How many other programs have that level of federal match? Almost seventy-percent of monies spent on eldercare are used for wages and benefits. These wages and benefits create spending, generate taxes to our state and keep people off of unemployment, thus making our economy stronger.
As the long-term care profession prepares, based on demographics, to meet the ever-increasing needs of our elderly, we need to provide a stable base to build upon. The next generation of elder care residents has a higher level of expectation and will expect more from the provider community at large. Reductions to the senior care budget will most definitely impact staffing. When staffing is affected, the quality of care of the residents can be hindered.
In conjunction with the services that we provide to the community, we need to continue to upgrade and update our physical plants. Many long-term care centers are old and outdated. There does not exist good funding mechanisms to allow for the replacement and upgrading of these facilities.
In addition to funding for programs such as the moratorium exception process, we need to improve these programs in terms of recognition of debt. It is difficult to get outside funding for capital improvements with the existing payment programs without substantial equity contributions. With tight operating margins and cash flow, very few providers have the ability to meet equity requirements, and thus, needed projects are not being completed.
We all need to make sure that state legislators understand that reductions to long-term care funding hurt the economy of our nation and impede our ability to provide needed care in appropriate environments to our vulnerable citizens. It is our responsibility to get involved and work with state and national trade associations to be advocates for residents and employees. We all have strong voices as we represent numerous constituents of our legislators. Let’s all get involved and have our voices heard!