Until reading Robin Dale’s Feb. 12 letter “Budget for Care of Seniors,” I had not been aware that this was an issue: “Assisted-living Medicaid rates haven’t been updated in nearly a decade. Rates fell short by more than $100 million in 2012 — and more than half the state’s nursing homes lost money.” This whole situation causes workers to lose their jobs and senior citizens to not have something to rely on for their futures when they would need long-term care.
Skilled and assisted-living care must be a priority in the supplemental budget. Those senior citizens would have worked all their lives to end up with nothing in their old age. It is really important for the government to update assisted-living Medicaid so that we do not run into more problems that will cause us to have a harder time as we age.
Angel Prokopenko
Vancouver
