Don’t abandon our elderly and caregivers!

It has been a couple of incredibly difficult years for those of us who have been working in California’s nursing facilities. As frontline workers, we have risked our lives to serve our most vulnerable population. Yes, there have been many of our co-workers who passed during this pandemic! The Media has not reported on that fact!
While most of America was working from home during the pandemic, we came to work every day to care for our most vulnerable elderly. We showed up when the virus was the most virulent and dangerous, and we came even though there were no vaccines and little protection! And for this Governor Newsom is giving us a smack to the face, despite us delivering among the best outcomes for seniors in the country during this pandemic!

Today, we are still facing many of the same challenges and stresses, but instead of support and appreciation from our state government and media, we have been criticized, vilified, and victimized. The latest proposal from Governor Newsom suggests a reduction of approximately $275 million in Medi-Cal funding by the State of California to its 1200 Skilled Nursing Facilities.

Though the government provided loans and stimulus funds over the last few years, it was not enough, and many nursing facilities are still losing tens of thousands of dollars each month. Wages have exploded over this period, increasing 20-30%. We are facing the greatest shortage of nurses in our state’s history as many of our nurses retired or quit the profession over the last two years. The cost of most of the critical supplies we use have increased dramatically as well.

This has put enormous stress on all of us and it persists today. Yet, Governor Newsom is contemplating cutting the payments to nursing facilities that pay for nursing salaries and the critical supplies we use every day. This will directly hurt those most vulnerable to the pandemic and the people who serve them. This will pressure many facilities and caregivers to cut corners! This is an extremely dangerous proposal that will take over $20 million per month from those that are caring for our state’s elderly. Most troubling is that our nursing facilities have been dramatically underfunded for years and nursing care providers have been losing money on every patient the entire time!

We are caregivers because we feel the calling to serve. We love the elderly patients we serve and have made a long-term commitment to provide them with health services and high-quality residences as they live out their remaining years. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! Throughout the pandemic we have made daily pivots as CMS rules have been adjusted and altered. We stayed stalwart through the midst of the pain and suffering of our residents. We even sacrificed our own mental and physical health and that of our families. We have taken additional shifts, braved the pandemic when little was known, and even lost loved ones while still serving our seniors.

Make no mistake, we are still in the midst of this pandemic. Seniors are still being affected by this horrific virus. We are still consuming large amounts of PPE, still providing significant amounts of testing, and still working under the most strenuous circumstances. Governor Newsom should be working with us not against us!
The Governor’s proposed $275 million reduction of nursing facility funding will make it even more difficult to provide services than it already is and exacerbate the industry-wide nursing shortage. Put bluntly, cutting the payments to those who own, operate, and provide care within our state’s 1200 plus nursing facilities would be irresponsible and will hurt us, the frontline workers, and the seniors we serve. Payments to the state’s care facilities should be increased, not cut!

Please help, please sign this petition to add your voice.