Carter Wrenn posted on July 23, 2009 08:53
Our TV Ads, E-mails, and press releases have created a debate in Senator Doug Berger’s district about his bill to cut home care for 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients.
Here are two examples from The Franklin Times that appeared yesterday: A letter to the editor and an editorial cartoon.
July 22, 2009
The Franklin Times
Berger Verses the Evil Seniors
By: Letters
Dear Editor:
Sometimes politics can get, well, a little strange.
State Sen. Doug Berger voted to cut 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients’ home care, then eight days later, turned around and voted to spend $25 million to build a fishing pier at the beach, with a 16,000-foot clubhouse and balloon.
But when the Association for Home and Hospice Care pointed out putting fishing piers before the needs of elderly Medicaid patients might be a case of misplaced priorities, Senator Berger’s response was, well, even more surprising.
He shot back the 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients (and the nurses and nurses’ aides who provide their care) are the real villains. Then he wrote his constituents saying what he was doing in Raleigh was fighting the “special interests.” Then he made it sound like 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients (many over 80 years old and disabled) were the most dangerous pack of lobbyists any politician has faced since President Teddy Roosevelt tackled the Oil Monopoly and the Railroad Trust.
Like it or not, that’s just politics. But here’s what really matters. If Sen. Berger cuts home care, 20,000 elderly patients are going to face a bleak choice: for care they’ll have to go into nursing homes—which will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Timothy R. Rogers, CEO
Assoc. for Home & Hospice Care of NC
South Carolina Home Care and Hospice Assoc.
Raleigh