Unless you've been adopted by the religious right as their right-to-life poster girl, you can bet the "Culture of Life" politicians have suddenly embraced doesn't apply to you. Even as the prayers ascend to heaven by way of Florida the prayerless are dying, as the Miami Herald reports:
Link: Agency probes group homes' deaths.
A federally funded watchdog group is investigating the recent deaths of four disabled Floridians amid an aggressive campaign by the state to cut millions of dollars from programs that provide medical care for disabled people in community settings. Two developmentally disabled adults who lived in group homes in Brandon, and two others under the care of The ARC in St. Lucie County, have died since October 2004, a month after the state required the operator of the two Brandon group homes to change the way residents received nursing care. A woman at one Brandon home developed such a severe infection at the site of her feeding tube that she has been hospitalized in intensive care since Feb. 13.
'We will be looking into these deaths,'' said Sylvia Smith, of the watchdog group, the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities in Tallahassee. "This is a top priority, and it should be a top priority for the state.''
Where's Jeb Bush when you need him? I like to imagine him surrounded by moneybags, counting the millions the state has saved since hiring Maximus, Inc. (for $5.2 million) to find ways to cut costs. Instead of looking on the state's fine golf courses or in opulent beach communities for conspicuous consumption, they've aimed their ax on the most vulnerable:
In a recent report to lawmakers, APD officials said they anticipate Maximus will find $24 million in annual savings. The company's actions have been upheld in 97 percent of the appeals to state officials. Advocates for the disabled insist that the quality of medical care for disabled people in group homes has suffered since Maximus, and the state, in September 2004, began requiring group homes to pay for nursing care from the state's Medicaid Plan. That plan covers rotating nurses, not the more stable nursing care provided under a previous plan for disabled people. Reed said such patients, who most often have complex medical needs, require constant surveillance by nurses who are trained to recognize often subtle changes.
When I oversaw my mom's nursing home care, I saw how dangerous these temp nurses can be, especially for a patient who can't verbalize. One gave my mom a handful of pills, not knowing she couldn't swallow them. She was given meds she didn't need, and taken off meds she DID need, because of unfamiliarity with her basic medical history. The corporate-owned nursing home, eager to cut costs, relied increasingly on "agency nurses" to replace long term nurses who quit for more lucrative nursing jobs (at hospitals where patients have health insurance, not at nursing homes that rely on Medicaid for their income).
But my mom's not the only one Jeb Bush doesn't pray for. These Florida residents are probably left out of his prayers too, as well as his budget:
•The Oct. 13, 2004, death of a 19-year-old man from aspiration pneumonia at the Rockwood group home. The condition typically occurs when liquid flows into the lungs of a person with a feeding disorder.
• On Dec. 10. 2004, a 55-year-old woman died after choking on a sandwich at a day training program in St. Lucie County.
• On Feb. 13, a 28-year-old woman at the Overland group home was placed in intensive care after being diagnosed with a severe infection at the base of her feeding tube. The woman remains in intensive care, with a ventilator. The November 2003 nursing report obtained by The Herald shows the woman, who has mental retardation and cerebral palsy, also had severe medical problems. The woman's feeding tube regularly leaked or became infected, and doctors replaced it frequently, records show.• The Feb. 21, death of the 38-year-old man who was a client of The ARC of St. Lucie County.
• The March 2 death of a 27-year-old man at the the Overland group home. Both advocates and the APD agree that his nursing care had been changed before he had a seizure Feb. 26. Middell, the group home's director, said the man's total nursing hours had been cut on Dec. 28 by about 53 percent.
But why pick on Jeb Bush? Other politicians joined the Culture of Life Cult, too. Are their prayers any more broadly distributed?
Not if they vote for this budget:
The President’s budget for fiscal year 2006 includes major proposals relating to Medicaid, the health care and long-term care program for low-income Americans that is jointly funded by the federal government and the states. The Administration proposes to reduce net federal funding for Medicaid by $45 billion over the next ten years. These reductions would have significant implications for the program’s ability to provide health care coverage to low-income uninsured Americans and for states’ ability to finance their share of program costs.
Many states are struggling to fund their share of Medicaid costs. A number of states are responding by instituting changes that terminate coverage for groups of low-income beneficiaries (generally causing most such beneficiaries to become uninsured) or deny coverage for certain services that some beneficiaries — in some cases, those who are the sickest and require the most prescriptions or longest hospital stays — may need. Proposals that would shrink the federal government’s contribution to state Medicaid costs without reducing Medicaid costs themselves would shift financial burdens to states. [From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Emphasis mine.]
Meanwhile, the Culture Club of Life keeps praying. Because, short of raising taxes on the wealthy, there's not much else to do, is there? (I wonder if they're taking applications for the next Culture of Life poster girl? I think my mom would look pretty cute on a poster. If Rep. DeLay would like to email me, we could talk legislation.)
