Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions From Health Law

Rick Scibelli Jr. for The New York Times



The numbers are stark. Among workers who provide hands-on care to nursing home residents, one in four has no health insurance. Among those who provide care to people living at home, one in three is uninsured.

The new health care law is supposed to fix the problem by guaranteeing access to affordable coverage for all. But many nursing homes and home care agencies, alarmed at the cost of providing health insurance to hundreds of thousands of health care workers, have started a lobbying effort seeking some kind of exemption or special treatment.

Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, the largest trade group for nursing homes, says the problem is that reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare, set by government agencies, do not pay them enough to offer their employees medical coverage. “We do not have much ability to increase prices because we are so dependent on Medicaid and Medicare” for revenue, he said.

Mr. Parkinson acknowledged that when nursing homes do offer health insurance to employees, the benefits are often limited. The coverage “is probably not up to what will be required” by the federal law, he said.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/us/16nursing.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all

I worked in one this last semester. The aids come and go always looking for a better place to work.

How sad that people whose profession it is to provide care, are unable to receive it themselves.

People need insurance/coverage for care.