The Left Hand Doesn’t Know What The Farther-Left Hand Is Doing

It was one of the stories that got no play last session, in spite of the fact because it highlights the bizarre schizophrenia of using politics to allocate human capital, but while on the one hand AFSCME was working to unionize home-child-care providers – who are independent contractors and don’t have “management” – it was instituting full-day kindergarten, reducing the number of kids who’d be in daycare at all.

Which wasn’t entirely incongruous, if you think about it; to the DFL, racket money from daycare providers and union dues from a doubling of Kindergarten teachers are both just revenue streams.

But this?

The final rule, for the most part, confirmed a proposed rule, issued in July, which will cut the Medicare home health benefit by $22 billion over the next four years.

“Congress asked [Center for Medicaid Services],” Halamandaris said, “to do a comprehensive evaluation of the home health benefit, to isolate what works and what needs improvement, how to increase access and efficiency, and how to reduce costs while improving the quality of care. CMS did none of this. Instead, all they did was look to impose the largest possible cut —3.5 percent a year — on the Medicare home health benefit. This adds up to 14 percent over the next four years, or a total of $22 billion.”

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice has produced studies showing that the Medicare home health benefit has already endured more than its fair share of cuts. The benefit has been cut a disproportionate $78 billion since 2009. Add in the newly imposed cut and $100 billion in cuts will have been taken from the most popular and most-needed Medicare program. And as a result of these cuts by the end of 2017, 75 percent of Medicare-certified agencies will be forced under water with profit margins of zero or less.

“The clear conclusion is that saving money is more important to CMS than serving those who are so sick they cannot leave home without assistance,” Halamandaris pointed out. “It is obvious that they turned a deaf ear to our pleas on behalf of aged, infirm, disabled, and dying Americans.”

In other words, while the SEIU was working calling in markers with the DFL to unionize home-care workers, President Obama was working to shut the industry down completely.

Good job, guys.

8 thoughts on “The Left Hand Doesn’t Know What The Farther-Left Hand Is Doing

  1. “The clear conclusion is that saving money is more important to CMS than serving those who are so sick they cannot leave home without assistance,”

    Emery will be by later to explain how this is a desired and beneficial outcome for the collective and not only that but he will promise you a 5% tax cut if you agree with him.

  2. If these daycare providers are independent contractors, isn’t their ‘union’ really an illegal conspiracy to fix prices?

  3. PM,

    No price-fixing is involved. The providers are still free to set their own prices.

    But if they receive the state food-aid subsidy program, they’ll have to pay union dues.

    That’s something skeevy. I just don’t think “price fixing” is the term we want.

  4. Hmm. I’ll have to look into this further. If the union is not representing the workers, why are they being made to pay dues? This sounds like the kind of worker abuse that goes on in fascist countries, where the ‘unions’ are run by government stooges.

  5. “If the union is not representing the workers, why are they being made to pay dues? ”

    That’s a great question. At the hearings (yes, I attended), union reps pointed to “training” benefits – but CC providers already have to do a ton of that to keep their licenses. And a few yarbled about “protection”, although from whom I’m not sure.

  6. “And a few yarbled about “protection”, although from whom I’m not sure.”

    This is a union we’re talking about, right?

    The obvious (and true) answer is “from the union”.

    I remember hiding out in the back of a truck for about an hour while the Business Agents visited the work site. My boss didn’t want his employees (union and non-union) driving over nails to get to our jobs the next morning (and beyond), apparently.

  7. One of the interesting things about daycare/home care providers is that it would appear that they’d be paying union dues out of their gross, not out of their net. When you consider the wear and tear that kids can put on a home, and the cost of having a home suitable for daycare, that’s going to hit these guys HARD.

    Not that Democrats (2.3% tax on medical devices) seem to understand the difference between “gross” and “net”, or between “revenue” and “profits”, of course.

  8. The last US lead smelter has closed. Forced out of business by the EPA. I’m sure that the lead we need will be much cleaner from China or Mexico.

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