Home health care benefits both taxpayers and patients

As Gov. David Paterson tries to make New York State's budget ends meet, he is met with cry after cry -- ''You can't cut my program!''

We've all seen the heart-rending ads on TV. There's one proposed cut, however, that doesn't make sense even for the people it least affects directly: home health care.

The governor wants to cut Medicaid reimbursement rates between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent for certified home health agencies and long term home health care programs; he's also proposing an additional, across-the-board cut of 1 percent in all Medicaid rates, the elimination of an inflation-based increase in payments to home health providers for 2008 and 2009, and a 0.7 percent tax on revenues.

The Home Care Association of New York State says these actions likely will force many home care providers to drastically reduce services or go out of business. And without the option of home care, people who have depended on it are likely to end up back in hospitals and nursing homes, where taxpayers will pick up a much larger Medicaid bill.

The governor figures his proposal will save the state $184 million in Medicaid costs in 2009-10; since the federal government contributes toward Medicaid, it means a cut of about $347 million in federal home health funding. Does Gov. Paterson think the people who no longer can get home health care are just going to disappear? Too many will need to be moved into more expensive hospitals and nursing homes. Home health care is less expensive, and provides better care, most experts agree. Why would we want to end a program that does that?

New York State's Medicaid program has been described as the ''Cadillac'' of programs, offering more coverage than most other states do. It is better coverage than many people can afford from private insurers, and better than the coverage offered by many employers. Shouldn't this be an area that could be looked at for cuts before threatening programs that actually save taxpayers money while providing better care for patients?

Neither the taxpayers nor the patients will be better off under these proposed budget cuts. We urge Gov. Patterson to reconsider.

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