Home Health Copays and Payment Cuts are Wrong for Medicare

Over 3 million senior citizens and Americans with disabilities enrolled in Medicare rely on home health care services. This benefit allows individuals to receive quality, affordable health care services in the comfort of their homes rather than a more costly hospital or nursing home setting. Copayments and additional payment cuts would be devastating to access to care for home health patients in our state.

A Home Health Copayment:

would be a "Sick Tax" falling most heavily on the oldest, sickest, poorest seniors;
will shift seniors to more costly hospital or nursing home settings, increasing Medicare and Medicaid costs;
was repealed in 1972 because of the burden it placed on vulnerable seniors, collection costs, and the services it shifted to more costly settings.

Tell Congress that Medicare savings can be achieved through thoughtful and targeted reforms—not the imposition of home health copays and payment cuts!

Subject:

Oppose Medicare home health copays & payment cuts

Dear Official,

I am writing to ask you to oppose any proposals that would require a home health copayment for Medicare beneficiaries or add to the $110 billion in legislative and regulatory cuts the home health benefit has sustained for the period 2009-2019.

Over 3 million senior citizens and Americans with disabilities enrolled in Medicare rely on home health care services.  This benefit allows individuals to receive quality, affordable health care services in the comfort of their homes rather than a more costly hospital or nursing home setting.  Copayments and additional payment cuts would be devastating to access to care for home health patients in our state.

Congress eliminated home health copayments in 1972 to encourage the use of less costly health care services.  Increasing out-of-pocket medical expenses on the elderly and disabled discourages individuals from seeking this more affordable, necessary care and forces them to seek care in more expensive institutional settings.  In addition, the greatest impact of this "sick tax" would fall on the oldest and most infirm Medicare beneficiaries who already spend a high percentage of their income on health care needs.  Home health patients and their families and friends already pay a huge copayment by providing an estimated $450 billion a year in unpaid care at home, costs that would be incurred by Medicare if these patients were in a hospital or nursing home.

Already about 60 percent of home health agencies are projected to be paid less by Medicare than their costs by 2017.  Deeper payment cuts will directly impact access to care for Medicare beneficiaries in need of home health services.

I respectfully ask that you preserve access to home health services by rejecting home health copayments and more home health payment cuts.

Regards, Your Name

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Your action today makes a difference in the lives of our countries most vulnerable seniors — the sick, the old and the infirm! #NoSickTax