Lawsuit pushed by Rodimer’s DC backers to kill the ACA “threatens coronavirus-ravaged nursing homes”
In Nevada, disturbing details have emerged showing that nursing homes have been ravaged by coronavirus and lack the accountability measures and protections needed for Nevada’s seniors that are ensured under the Affordable Care Act.
Now, a new report from MarketWatch shows how the agenda backed by Dan Rodimer would threaten nursing homes, making them “collateral damage” by undoing oversight and resident protections, stripping many long-term care workers of their health care coverage, and undermining efforts to expand care options for seniors.
U.S. nursing homes, reeling from the impact of coronavirus, may become collateral damage from the Trump administration’s effort to overturn the Affordable Care Act, policy experts say.
The 2010 health law reformed the nursing-home sector, aiming to improve care, oversight and resident protections, and expanded home- and community-based care options.
In recent months, public nursing-home data mandated by the ACA, including details on staffing and ownership, have become critical to consumers, researchers and public-policy experts as they examine why some nursing homes were able to keep COVID-19 at bay while many others have been devastated by the virus.
“If the ACA were repealed, it would send a message — a very unhelpful message — that nursing-home transparency, accountability and improvement [are] not so important,” says Anne Montgomery, who helped craft the ACA’s nursing-home provisions as a policy adviser to the Senate Special Committee on Aging and is currently co-director of the Program to Improve Eldercare at the nonprofit research organization Altarum.
That message would be particularly ill-timed, policy experts say, as more than 50,000 long-term-care residents and staff have died of COVID, accounting for about 40% of known U.S. deaths from the virus, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
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Despite these alarming reports, Rodimer and his Washington Republican backers are moving ahead with their efforts to “terminate” the health care law – a move that would also eliminate protections for 337,100 people in NV-03 with pre-existing conditions.
“Older Nevadans have been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic and protecting them should be among our leaders’ top priorities. Yet given the chance to stand up for Nevada seniors, Dan Rodimer has let them down, choosing to put his blind party loyalty ahead of their health and safety,” said DCCC Spokesperson Andy Orellana
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