CAREGIVERS USA NEWS

Vol. I, No. 14
February 10, 2003

SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE BILL INTRODUCED
Legislation introduced by Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) and Jim McDermott (D-WA) would create a national single-payer health care system, basically extending Medicare to all U.S. residents. The measure would be funded by the existing Medicare payroll tax and by an additional payroll tax. It would cover primary medical care, prescription drugs, dental and vision care. Unlike most single-payer systems, the Conyers-McDermott plan would preserve private-sector health care. The government would finance health care but would not directly administer it, just as is now the case with Medicare.

BUSH MEDICARE PLAN STILL TAKING FLAK
Though muted by the Space Shuttle accident and gathering clouds of war, there has been mounting criticism of President Bush's Medicare reform plan in recent days. Key House Republicans told Vice President Cheney and White House political operatives that any plan sent to the Hill must include prescription drug coverage for all Medicare beneficiaries, whether or not they remain in the traditional fee-for-service program. There's not much applause from the insurance industry either. Few companies have expressed eagerness eager to operate plans for the elderly and disabled, who by definition are high users of health care services.

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MEDICAID CUTBACKS
At least two-thirds of the states are cutting Medicaid benefits, increasing co-payments, restricting eligibility or removing poor people from the rolls to cope with falling state tax revenues, shrinking federal allocations and rising costs. A survey of 50 states found that 16 are cutting Medicaid benefits, 15 are restricting or reducing eligibility and 4 are increasing the co-payments charged to beneficiaries. Also, at least 21 states are freezing or reducing Medicaid payments to doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and other providers.

Medicaid provides health care for more than 40 million people, at an annual cost of more than $250 billion. The federal government and the states share the cost, which rose 13 percent in the last fiscal year, the biggest increase since 1992.

Here is a roundup of typical stories from around the nation, with links to local newspaper stories.

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco Department of Public Health Director Dr. Mitch Katz announced a proposal to eliminate $37.5 million from the department budget in fiscal year 2003-2004 to help address the city's estimated $350 million budget deficit, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

APPALACHIA -- Cutbacks in Medicaid and other spending would erase 50 years of progress in Appalachia, local officials say. The Bush budget would cut the Appalachian Regional Commission's federal funds by more than 55 percent. "This ... would put us back 50 years," said Boyer Simcox, executive director of the Buckeye Hills Hocking Valley Regional Development District in Marietta, Ohio. "Over a period of years, this would stop all progress that's been made in this region."
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HOUSTON -- Two Houston lawmakers warned that cuts in state Medicaid spending would deepen a crisis for local taxpayers and the health care system. Without health care coverage from Medicaid, the needy will add to the overload on the Harris County public hospital system, which is funded by local property taxes, they said. "Cutting Medicaid funding will cost taxpayers more money, not less," Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Bell said during a news conference inside a Memorial Hermann Hospital emergency treatment room.
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BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney's proposed Medicaid cuts would have a "devastating effect" on the economy and hundreds of health-care jobs would be lost, according to local health care leaders who sent a joint letter to state legislators trying to reverse the cuts. Medicaid reimbursement is already 20 to 30 percent below the cost of providing many services, industry leaders say.
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Also in Massachusetts, state mental health officials are trying to determine where 4,900 severely mentally ill people will go for intensive therapy now that they've been taken off the Medicaid rolls in a cost-cutting move by the governor. "The Department of Mental Health is going to do whatever it possibly can within the confines of this system," a spokesman said. "To do anything less would certainly be irresponsible."

DELAWARE -- Delaware's largest prescription drug supplier said it will withdraw from the Medicaid prescription drug program and other large chains, including Rite-Aid, may soon follow. Alan Levin, chairman and CEO of Happy Harry's drug stores, informed the state's Health and Social Services Department on Tuesday of its intentions after the state said it would lower its reimbursement rates for prescription drugs.
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SENIORS TARGET GLAXO
Seniors groups are launching a boycott of GlaxoSmithKline, the drug giant that cut supplies to Canadian pharmacies that sold its drugs to Americans over the Internet at prices lower than those charged in the U.S. Hundreds of groups have launched an e-mail and phone campaign urging consumers to boycott Glaxo's over-the-counter products, which include Tums antacid, Aquafresh toothpaste and Contac cold remedies.

CURE-ALLS CURE NOTHING
It's a pretty good rule of thumb that any substance that supposedly cures just about anything you can think of probably cures nothing at all. That would certainly be the case with "coral calcium," now being very profitably promoted in a series of preposterous infomercials and Web sites orchestrated by one Robert R. Barefoot of Wickenburg, Arizona. Barefoot targets his appeals to seniors, so caregivers may want to warn those they care for to be wary of anything they see on television or read on the Internet.
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IN THE FORUMS ...
-- A reader writes: "I'm wondering if anyone in the professional community has suggestions on good resources to use with early to moderate and moderate to severe dementia patients. I am in the process of revamping our group interventions on an inpatient unit and would love to hear from others about what works."
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-- "Our elderly are not receiving adequate healthcare...and I am proud you are speaking up," writes a North Carolina nurse in the "Starved to Death" Forum.
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CALENDAR ITEMS ...
-- The Association of Jewish Aging Service of North America, Annual Conference, Feb. 22-25 in Beverly Hills. Topic: "Serving the Changing Jewish Marketplace, from black and white to Technicolor."
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