The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Dear Editor,
Comments: I learned on foxnews.com that a citizen of yours died in Iraq on March 24. My warmest feelings to his family and to the city of La Harpe.
Been to Illinois many times on business.
God bless America.
Franco Furlan
Milan, Italy
Email: franco_furlan@libero.it
BUDGET TALK
Dear Editor
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and our elected representatives in Springfield are now preparing the Illinois state budget. The task of preparing this budget is monumental.
Gov. Ryan and his aids (many under indictment on charges of corruption) left the state of Illinois in fiscal ruin. Last budget, Gov. Ryan in a last minute attempt to balance his budget, cut Medicaid rates to Illinois nursing homes by 5.9% or $110 million. The current Medicaid funding system for nursing home residents in Illinois is outdated and unfair to down state nursing homes. A nursing home in upstate Illinois can get a Medicaid daily rate from $95.00 to $100.00, in Forgotonia the state may pay as low as $70.00 to $75.00 a day to care for the most frail and vulnerable citizens of Illinois.
Illinois is 23% below the national average for Medicaid funding, only Indiana's Medicaid funding is lower than Illinois. For example, just across the river in Iowa daily Medicaid rates are $92.00.
Gov. Blagojevich is proposing to cut $49.2 million more dollars from public aid. One of the social responsibilities of state government is to help those citizens who cannot help themselves, not take funding away.
To add insult to injury, the state is not paying their bills. Nursing homes in Illinois have not been paid promptly for their Medicaid patients since early 2002. Right now nursing homes in Illinois are waiting to be paid for services provided in Oct.-Nov. of 2002. With the state owing individual homes hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Many nursing homes are forced to borrow money against accounts receivable from the state, this forces nursing homes to pay 6% to 7% to lending institutions for interest payments.
By cutting daily Medicaid rates by 5.9%, not paying the true cost of caring for patients, not paying their bills (forcing interest payments), and possibly cutting more funding to public aid, the state of Illinois is leading the sick, the frail, the poor to an uncertain fate.
But if enough voices are heard in Springfield these trends mentioned above can be reversed over time.
I urge the citizens of west central Illinois to communicate with our elected representatives, to resolve these problems before it is too late to pull back from the edge. For more information on how you can help be a voice for the sick and vulnerable, stop in or contact La Harpe Davier Health Care Center.
Carl Lee
President of La Harpe
Hospital Assoc.