Jacob Toporek, executive director of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations, wants to make sure health-care reform “benefits the most members of our community.”
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June 11, 2009
Representatives of Jewish federations in New Jersey are urging Congress to pass two measures that would alleviate some of the pressure on the overburdened federal Medicaid program.
Their advocacy is part of an effort by the country’s Jewish federations to be a force in any new national health-care initiative.
Leaders of United Jewish Communities, the federation umbrella organization, recently held a two-day summit in Washington on the subject. The UJC’s Health and Long-term Care Workgroup met with numerous Washington decision-makers, including Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Many federation-supported agencies rely on Medicaid funding to serve the low-income elderly, said Jacob Toporek, executive director of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations and a workgroup member. “One of our greatest concerns is the effect any long-term health care will have on Medicaid,” he said.
Toporek said those Medicaid costs are associated with nursing homes and programs for the disabled and seniors. Most Jewish nursing homes receive at least half of their income from the federal/state program.
Toporek joined UJC in urging congressional support for the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. It would create a voluntary disability insurance program for adults with long-term care needs and alleviate some of the pressure currently on the Medicaid program.
The legislation would help establish a comprehensive continuum of care in preparation for the influx of the baby-boomer generation, supporters say.
The Jewish groups also urged Senate support for the Empowered at Home Act, intended to expand the Medicaid state options for home and community-based care.
“The Jewish population is demographically growing older faster than any other group of people,” said Dr. Michael Silverstein, a North Brunswick orthopedist and workgroup member. “More of the Jewish population is going into nursing homes, more are using eldercare lawyers to divest themselves of assets so they are going on Medicaid earlier.”
Silverstein, a former board member at the Central New Jersey Jewish Home for the Aged (now Regency Heritage Center) in Somerset and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, said costs could also be saved by helping the elderly age at home rather than in more expensive nursing home settings.
“We’re going to have to make long-term care more humane and more cost effective, but unfortunately this doesn’t have the sexiness of acute care or people without insurance coverage,” said Silverstein. “But it’s equally a problem and a rapidly growing problem.”
Toporek said President Barack Obama has asked both the House and Senate to have their versions of a health-care reform bill passed by August and have a bill in place by October.
“Health-care reform is going to happen, and we want it to,” said Toporek, who called UJC “one of the guiding lights” of health- care reform.
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