Threat to Medicare, Medicaid sparks protest

GARY | The thought of cuts in Medicare and Medicaid funding scares home care provider Vicky Hernandez, but perhaps it scares even more the patients she cares for.

"My patient said, without Medicaid, she would die," said Hernandez, of Lake Station. "Without us, she can't get her medicine. She can't eat."

Hernandez was among a group of about 50 medical professionals, elected leaders and residents who gathered Monday in downtown Gary to rally against proposed Medicare and Medicaid cuts.

The federal Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was created with passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011. It will make recommendations on how to reduce the national deficit by at least $1.5 trillion during the next 10 years. The committee's deadline is Nov. 23.

The 12-member committee, split evenly with six Democrats and six Republicans, has introduced several proposals to complete its task, some of which include substantial cuts in the federally run Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are age 65 or older, certain younger people with disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps with medical costs for people with low or limited incomes and resources.

According to a statement from SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana, Indiana would lose more than 4,000 jobs if Medicaid funding is cut by 5 percent. Medicaid funding also supported 49 percent of all inpatient days at Methodist Hospitals during 2009, the statement said.

"How can you be a safe community if you're not a healthy community?" asked Denise Dillard, vice president of government and external affairs for Methodist Hospitals.

Along with Dillard, state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary; state Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary; and Gary Deputy Mayor Geraldine Tousant appeared at the rally.

Students at the Indiana University School of Medicine also are protesting the cuts, worried it will affect their education and the education of future doctors.

"We already face a critical shortage of physicians, which is estimated to rise to 91,000 by 2020. Health reform is predicted to add 32 million Americans to insurance rolls. Add to that the expanding number of Americans over the age of 65," said Clara Park, a fourth-year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine, in a statement. "Who will care for these patients if residency programs are cut?"

Park said Medicare pays part of the cost of training in teaching hospitals. So the cuts threaten residency programs and the hospitals' ability to provide care, she said.

The medical students are trying to rally support for the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2011, which proposes increasing the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education positions by 15,000 over the next five years, Park said.

At Monday's rally, supporters held signs with slogans such as "Hands off Medicaid" and "Save Medicaid and Medicare." Anntonie Whitelow, of Gary, a certified nursing assistant at Methodist Hospitals, expressed confusion and frustration about the funding.

"How can Congress find money for wars, but not for people to survive?"