(Repealing this tax is now one of my goals. This is onerous and disgusting. - promoted by Rob "EaBo Clipper" Eno)
First off an observation. There is a tax per night on nursing home stays? There is a tax on health-care services, really. Not only is there a tax the Deval Patrick administration increased it by 65%? from $11.59 per day to $19.17 per day. It now costs a family $583 per month in taxes to keep a relative in a nursing home. This is the state preying on the sick to balance their budget. Deval Patrick should be ashamed of himself.
The Lowell Sun is reporting that due to the increase in taxes families are opting out of privately paying for nursing home care and enrolling in medicaid.
Judy, 65, went to live at Sunny Acres Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Chelmsford in November. Bob, a retired elementary school teacher, has been cutting deep into his savings to keep Judy comfortable in a private room, costing $340 a day.
Until January, when the nursing-home bed tax jumped from $11.59 a day to $19.17 per day -- adding hundreds to his monthly bill. Despite the soaring tax increase, the state slashed federal Medicaid reimbursement to nursing homes by about $23 million this year, leaving many elder-care facilities unable to cover the costs of daily care and forcing some self-pay patients into the Medicaid system.
Bob said his limited savings would not have kept Judy in the private pay system for the rest of her life, but the increased bed tax leaves the couple no choice but to place Judy into the Medicaid rolls sooner, and into a smaller room where she'll have one or more roommates.
Bob then goes on to explain how by relying on himself the government penalizes him. The penalties are so high that he and his wife are being forced to rely on the state and medicaid, instead of paying for her care themselves.
"I'm paying for my wife's care and by doing that, I'm saving the state a lot of money," Bob said. "In return, the state has penalized me for doing that by taking my money for my wife's care and putting it in a place that doesn't benefit my wife at all."
This fee is an onerous intrusion on sick and the disabled. It should be rescinded immediately. |
