What is going on with the Elderly Poor during this Recession?

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Added: Wed. Dec 09, 2009 3:45pm
Posted in: Aging

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Why is it important to keep an eye on the on elderly poor right now?  Well, states throughout the nation are running budgetary deficits and are looking to make fiscal cuts across the board, so there is a focus on cutting Medicaid expenditures.  The federal government is looking to streamline Medicare which means they want to provide traditional services with less costs.  And, the elderly poor are least able to represent themselves when they get caught in the middle. The elderly poor rely almost entirely on the state and federal government for their healthcare. They normally do not have private supplemental insurance to fall back on.

Now is a time when legal advocacy on behalf of low income older adults is crucial. The National Senior Citizens Law Center is launching a new campaign to use strategic litigation and administrative policy advocacy to protect low income older adults’ access to affordable health care.  The National Senior Citizens Law Center advocates before the courts, Congress and federal agencies to promote the independence and well-being of low-income elderly and disabled Americans.

Whether the elderly poor are living in a state subsidized nursing home or at home, they need state and federal essential healthcare services to continue to flow. Can you imagine life-sustaining healthcare being withheld from the elderly poor because it is no longer considered essential?

That’s why it is so important that Patient Advocacy groups like the NSCLC remain visible to our legislative bodies both state and federal; otherwise the elderly poor could become “forgotten” since they cannot speak out for themselves.

Please pay the NSCLC’s website a visit and see for yourself what they are doing on behalf of the elderly poor.

Please visit us at www.nslpn.com

Tom Ratcliff