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States across the U.S. are suffering from a variety of recession-related budget woes, and, as reported by The New York Times in a front-page story last weekend (“States Slashing Social Programs for Vulnerable,” April 11), many are responding by “slicing into their social safety nets — often crippling preventive efforts that officials say would save [...]

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In a recent commentary for the Rockefeller Institute of Government (“Health Care Reform: Thinking Long Term,” March 2009), Courtney Burke, director of the institute’s New York State Health Policy Research Center, brought attention to the role of U.S. states in modeling effective reforms for long-term care. “For decades, states have been experimenting with ways to [...]

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On April 1 Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) reintroduced the Caring for an Aging America Act. Medical News Today quotes Sen. Boxer as saying, “Our nation is facing an immediate and growing crisis in providing care for our aging population. Ensuring we have a well-trained health care workforce with the skills to [...]

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As reported by The Des Moines Register (“Winners, losers seen in ‘granny tax’ plan,” March 17, 2009), Iowa lawmakers are debating a bill that would impose a new tax on the state’s nursing homes. The tax would equal roughly 3 percent of residents’ cost of care and generate approximately $33 million per year.

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State leaders in Oregon have announced that they will be combining their state’s tax revenue with federal stimulus funds to create hundreds of new nursing home jobs. The Associated Press reported (“Federal aid will create nursing home jobs,” March 28) that lawmakers are talking about using a combination of state and federal dollars to help [...]

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PHI’s thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by last Sunday’s mass shooting at Pinelake Health and Rehab, a nursing home located in Carthage, NC (“Suspect’s wife sorry for NC nursing home shooting,” AP, April 1). According to the AP story, seven residents and one nurse were killed. Robert Stewart, 45, has been charged [...]

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