ACTION ALERT: February 28, 2005

1) Protect the General Assistance - Unemployable Program to prevent more people from becoming homeless
2) Ensure that reimbursements for nursing homes are at a level that reflects the current cost of providing care for residents

Do a Mitzvah for the Jewish Community by taking action!

These Action Alerts are political capital for our lobbying effort in Olympia. Taking the 5 minutes to read and respond to an Action Alert is akin to a donation to the Jewish Community. Not a gift of money, but a gift of advocacy. The Jewish Federation has an agenda designed by its beneficiary agencies, and these legislative priorities need the support of the community to survive. Devastating cuts to nursing home funding, discriminatory practices by life insurance companies and inadequate funding for vital refugee resettlement programs will all be the consequences of not taking action! Legislators DO read these emails and it DOES make a difference. Please, be an active voice for the Jewish Community and respond to this Action Alert! And when legislators respond to you, please let us know! It is extremely helpful for us to know if a legislator has a question, concerns, or supports the legislation.

HOW TO USE THIS ACTION ALERT: Each week, we highlight several key issues before the Washington State Legislature which have a direct impact on our community and community agencies. This Action Alert contains brief summaries of the key issues before the Legislature this week. It also provides you with direct e-mail links to your legislators and Legislative leaders. We provide you with a draft e-mail text which you can directly send or which you can modify to better represent your thoughts on an issue. When you send an e-mail, please be sure to fill out all of the information so that your legislator can directly respond to you.

In this alert:
1) Protecting the General Assistance-Unemployable Program
2) Fighting for Higher Nursing Home Reimbursements

The Mood
Today is the 50th day of the 105-day legislative session. The first legislative "cut-off" is this Wednesday - with all bills needing to be voted out of the policy committee they were introduced into, or for all practical purposes, they are dead. The next cutoff is next Monday, with all bills with a fiscal impact needing to be out of fiscal committees. Next week will bring a shift in the action, with the legislature spending most of their time on the floor in full debate over bills. Bills must be voted out of their "house of origin" by the end of March 16th.

House Bill 1561 and Senate Bill 5530 (identical versions of the same bill) have made it out of their policy committees before the Wednesday cutoff. As you may recall, these bills prohibit life insurers from denying life insurance to individuals based on their past or future travel. Their next stop is floor action. Also moving along in the process is Senate Bill 5452, which would prohibit insurers from requiring individuals to submit their personal genetic information in order to get insurance. This bill will be heard on the floor as soon as this week.

Adults
Issue: Protect the General Assistance - Unemployable Program to prevent more people from becoming homeless.

Update: On any given night, 8,000 people are homeless in our community. One of the key steps to ending homelessness is prevention. Jewish Family Service works with individuals in its emergency services work that rely on this program to access shelter and medical care.

In 2004, General Assistance - Unemployable, or GA-U, assisted more than 20,000 single people in Washington State who were disabled for more than three months through no fault of their own and were therefore unable to work. GA-U provides $339 a month and also includes limited medical benefits. People on GA-U either do not yet qualify for federal income assistance or will not ever qualify for federal assistance because their disability is short-term or they are legal immigrants or refugees, but not citizens of the United States. For some, the GA-U allows them to qualify for subsidized Section 8 housing because it demonstrates an "income". This is the safety net for the people at the fringes without health insurance, with an illness or non-job-related injury, and who have no other income. For many people on GA-U, eliminating the income support within the program would result in their being homeless.

Action: Contact your legislators (both of your Representatives and your Senator) and ask them to support the GA-U program in the budget process

Seniors
Issue: Ensure that reimbursements for nursing homes are at a level that reflects the current cost of providing care for residents.

Update: Of the 200-plus residents at Caroline Kline Galland Home, over half are on Medicaid. The Medicaid program pays for direct care of residents in addition to other services. Any reduction in Medicaid reimbursement would greatly affect the quality of care to nursing home residents.

Senate Bill 5569 attempts to address the under funding of nursing homes by making their reimbursement basis more recent. Today’s nursing facility Medicaid payments are based on 1999 costs. Since 1999, nursing facilities have experienced increases in liability insurance premiums upwards of 250%, workers’ compensation premium increases of 40%, increases in employee wages and benefits to remain competitive with home care workers’ wage increases, and normal inflationary costs for utilities, food and other operational costs. In many cases, Medicaid reimbursement has fallen below the nursing facilities’ cost of delivering services. Medicaid payments must be increased to ensure quality care and services to residents in nursing facilities. Nursing facilities must remain a viable part of the long-term care continuum as they serve those who are more medically fragile and in need of 24-hour skilled nursing care.

This bill has not been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means committee at this writing. It must be heard and voted on by the committee by next Monday to be "alive."

Action: Contact your Senator and urge him or her to take action on SB 5569