Click here to watch nursing home administrator Andy Wittman speak at the 2009 Pennsylvania Health Care Association rally about the tough decisions he faces because state government won’t cover the cost of care for the 98 percent of residents in his facility who are on Medicaid.

What's At Stake

What's at stake are the Medicaid and Medicare dollars that are needed to ensure that Pennsylvania families have access to quality nursing home care when they need it, and that nursing homes have the resources they need to deliver that quality care.

Pennsylvania is a rapidly aging state - the third 'oldest' in the nation - and nursing homes care for the sickest of the sick. Two out of three nursing home residents are on Medicaid, and for each one of them, government shortchanges the nursing home an average of $14 a day, or $5,000 a year. Nursing homes - unlike hospitals, doctors and other health care providers, cannot absorb these losses because they serve a much higher percentage of people on Medicaid and hence, have little opportunity to make up the difference with other payers.

Making matters worse, federal legislators are threatening to cut Medicare funds to nursing homes by $44 billion over the next 10 years. These cuts will be crippling to quality care. We must ensure that adequate Medicare funding is included in national health care reform.