Doris Sharpe

DALLAS, TX (KERA) - Nursing home advocates are traveling the state to draw attention to Medicaid cuts that could shortchange Texas elderly. Cash-strapped Texas is trimming this year's Medicaid funding for nursing homes by $25-million beginning next month, and state lawmakers are eyeing bigger Medicaid cuts they may adopt next year. KERA's Alexis Yancey has more on the concerns.

When an unexpected major illness strikes, families have to figure out how to care for loved ones. Doris Sharpe of Fort Worth says life dramatically changed for her mother, Mae Tatum, in 1995.

Doris Sharpe: She had a major stroke that left her paralyzed totally and completely. My brother was our main caregiver but my brother started to become ill himself.

That forced Sharpe to put her 84-year old mother in a nursing home last year. Medicaid helps pay the bill.

Doris Sharpe: Without this funding, mother would probably have to go back home to us and I don't know how we would handle it.

Sharpe is not alone. 70-percent of nursing home care is covered by Medicaid, which aids low income elderly and disabled patients. Despite an increase in funding during recent years, Texas still ranks 49th in Medicaid reimbursement rates. Texas Healthcare Association president Tim Graves says quality care for seniors and the disabled is threatened by Medicaid cuts.

Tim Graves: Those funding streams have always been capped, Medicaid has always been inadequate and now they are beginning to cut which is absolutely in the wrong direction.

Graves is part of Driving for Quality Care, a cross-country petition drive focusing attention on this issue. The campaign's R-V stopped in Fort Worth and Austin this week. The petition asks President Obama and federal and Texas lawmakers to keep Medicaid and Medicare funded to protect nursing home care.

Tim Graves: The point is that the folks who live in this nursing home, in the nursing homes across Texas and across the nation. When they were younger they were there for us. It's time for us to be there for them.

Doris Sharpe wasted no time signing the petition.

Doris Sharpe: "This funding would be so helpful, people who are now young, one day they too, may need this type of facility."

Right now, Texas is eligible for 858-million dollars in Medicaid stimulus money provided by the Obama administration. Governor Rick Perry' s office says it will apply for the funds by the September 24th deadline.

© Copyright 2010, KERA