Beyond irony: Nursing homes need waivers from Obamacare

By: Examiner Editorial
 05/16/11

Above the fold on the front page of the New York Times is not normally where one expects to find a news article that lays bare the mortal threat posed by Obamacare to a key segment of the health care industry and hundreds of thousands of its workers. But the pro-Obamacare newspaper pulled no punches Monday in a column-one story titled, "Nursing homes seek a reprieve from health law."

The focus of the piece was that "many nursing homes and home care agencies, alarmed at the cost of providing health insurance to hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers, have started a lobbying effort seeking an exemption or special treatment that would relieve them of the obligation or help them with the expense." A little further on in the article, Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, explained that his industry has to get a waiver from Obamacare because "we do not have much ability to increase prices because we are so dependent on Medicaid and Medicare" for revenue.  the rest

The result, if Obamacare becomes fully operational, will be that thousands of small nursing homes like Gantz's will either have to fire employees and restrict services, be bought out by nursing home conglomerates, or both.

MCJ: FINDING OUT WHAT IS IN IT