Florida Budget Cuts - The Grim Facts

From Kati...

This healthcare crisis (including all aspects of it) is obviously going to worsen. I just found another website that explains how many states are cutting programs - which will result in more hospitalization and probably lines for emergency treatment. Keep in mind that this was written in 2008 - and many of the cuts have already been made....and we wonder why there are screams in the night....???? Here's an excerpt -- link is below and includes CA:
Florida Budget Cuts - The Grim Facts NowPublic News Coverage

Programs for the Elderly and Disabled
At least five states are cutting or proposing to cut medical, rehabilitative, home care, or other services needed by low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, or significantly increasing the amounts that such people must pay for the services.
Florida legislators have proposed a number of cuts which will affect elderly and disabled populations: nursing homes and other providers would not get scheduled cost-of-living adjustments in their reimbursements and staffing standards would be relaxed in the expectation that the freeze would result in staffing cuts; Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals would be cut; hospice care for 8,000 terminally ill Medicaid patients would be eliminated; and the state’s only tuberculosis hospital would be closed. The Florida House proposes to eliminate coverage of hospital care from the state’s Medically Needy program, while the Senate plan would limit the program to children and pregnant women and eliminate 16,000 beneficiaries from the program. The Senate proposal eliminates a Medicaid program that covers 24,000 disabled and elderly state residents.