As support for President Barack Obama’s health care reform wavers across the board, a new study shows the bill will negatively affect nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the country.Current legislation limiting Medicare funding coupled with about $12 billion in Medicare cuts will slash $44 billion nationwide from nursing home budgets during the next 10 years, according to analysis from the American Health Care Association. The AHCA report also predicts the loss of about 50,000 skill caregiver jobs during those 10 years. In Louisiana alone, the Louisiana Nursing Home Association predicts about $570 million in cuts during the same time period. “With this particular bill, it seems they’re aiming at the skilled nursing force,” said Joe Donchess, LNHA executive director. “The cuts will have to be absorbed by manpower because that is where the costs are.”Donchess said he predicts more than $26 million in cuts and the loss of at least 600 nursing jobs in the first year if the health care bill passes in its current form.That many lost jobs will result in less individual care and fewer skilled technicians, Donchess said.”The bottom line is staffing cuts will affect the care for people who can’t take care of themselves,” said Todd Ford, administrator of Heritage House in Baton Rouge.Obama’s administration has repeated health care reform would not cut benefits to seniors. In a town hall meeting organized by the American Association of Retired People, Obama said the goal of reform was to end waste and inefficiency within the failing and draining Medicare system. He said reform would maintain the quality of care while still driving down costs.Donchess said these claims ignore the loss of staff those cuts would necessitate and the effect those losses would have on seniors.Staff is always the first cost on the chopping block because nursing homes can make few cuts to medical and physical care for their residents, Donchess said.Ford said cuts in staff could fundamentally alter the quality of care provided to the elderly in the state. Fewer staff members could mean fewer physical therapy sessions and longer waits between individual care.Nursing homes generally operate at a 1 to 2 percent profit margin, but Donchess said the current legislation will force nursing homes to give up 9 percent in revenues.Hospitals and pharmaceutical manufacturers will give up 6.5 percent and 5 percent, respectively.Ford said 60 percent of the revenue generated by nursing homes generally goes to paying staff. With about 77 million baby boomers nearing retirement, Donchess said the young people in America will be forced to pay for them through higher taxes.And with people living longer, he said the number of people living in nursing homes and drawing on Social Security will only continue to rise.Donchess said he was unsure of a definite answer to the imposing problems of health care cost but said health insurance cooperatives may be able to control costs better than private insurance companies.More importantly, he said it was necessary for people to take control of their own health and avoid unnecessary doctor visits.Donchess said the LNHA received $960 million in the form of a federal trust fund in 2002, but it won’t be enough to deflect all the damage. He said almost $800 million of those funds is still available to help wait out the cuts.—-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]