Medicaid, Medicare petition drive visits North Idaho

COEUR d'ALENE - A national petition aimed at protecting access to quality health care for Medicare and Medicaid recipients arrived Thursday in Coeur d'Alene.

The "Driving for Quality Care" RV stopped at Ivy Court, a skilled nursing rehabilitation facility, where residents, staff and family members gathered to send a message to state lawmakers to maintain funding for services for the elderly and disabled.

The petition drive was launched in June in Washington, D.C., by the American Health Care Association. Ivy Court was its 47th stop.

"It is truly my calling, caring for the elderly and the disabled, and I speak for all who do the same," said Billy Hennings, a certified nursing assistant at Ivy Court for four years.

Without adequate state and federal funding, Hennings said, the jobs of he and other long-term and rehabilitation health care personnel are in jeopardy.

"I can't stress enough how important these jobs are," Hennings said.

Gary Liesner, administrator at Ivy Court, said emergency funding through the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act approved by legislators and signed into law by President Barack Obama last month is a step in the right direction.

They must now focus on state lawmakers, Liesner said, to ensure that funding care for the elderly and disabled remains a priority.

Several times in the past few years, medical problems have made it impossible for Donna and Doug Miner to remain in their Post Falls home. Unable to care for each other at this time in their lives, they are both currently residing at Ivy Court.

"As a Medicare and Medicaid recipient, I'd like to personally encourage legislation to support adequate funding for nursing care for all facilities," Donna said.

Faye Swanson, 77, isn't a resident of Ivy Court. Her 53-year-old son is, after having a stroke, and going into renal failure in a Veterans Administration hospital in Wichita, Kan.

Swanson, of Coeur d'Alene, urged people to take up the cause, to contact their legislators and tell them to "keep Medicare and Medicaid alive and functioning."

"We can get this groundswell going, and keep it going," Swanson said.

Robert Vande Merwe, executive director of the Idaho Health Care Association, said in a telephone interview from Meridian that the federal health care reforms signed into law last year cut $15 billion in funding from nursing homes over the next 10 years.

"They took Medicare cuts to pay for reform, but there is no back end benefit," Vande Merwe said. "There was no deal to make sure people have long-term care insurance."

A large percentage of the clients served by facilities like Ivy Court arrive for short-term rehabilitation stays, now paid for by Medicare.

"We know Medicare is going broke, and Medicaid doesn't sustain itself," Vande Merwe said. "The baby boomers are coming. They're just turning 65 now, there will be a lot more over the next 20 years. The government doesn't really have a plan right now."

That's why it's important for them to get this message out there, he said.

The petition can be signed by visiting the grassroot campaign's website, www.drivingforqualitycare.com.