Washington, D.C. - While the Gore campaign is using doom and gloom Medicare scare tactics on seniors the Clinton-Gore Administration's own Occupational Safety and Health Administration is attempting to force a new special labor regulation into effect that could push many nursing homes and other health care facilities to the brink of bankruptcy, according to two senators close to the issue.
Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee members Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. and Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark. said the "Mediscare" tactics the Administration and Vice President Gore are feverishly plying "border on shameless."
"The Clinton-Gore Administration is saying that only they will work for you and protect seniors while simultaneously ramroding into effect a rule that's potentially harmful to seniors in Medicare and the poor who depend on Medicaid -- and which Congress, in a bi-partisan move, voted to delay. This presents yet another snapshot of politics over people," said Enzi.
"The effect of OSHA's so called repetitive stress regulation will be to stress people who depend on Medicare and Medicaid," said Hutchinson. "The cost of OSHA's multi-billion dollar proposal cannot be born by the patients and health care facilities that depend on these programs."
OSHA estimates the cost of compliance with the rule in the first year alone for nursing and personal care facilities and residential care to be about $525 million. OSHA has stated that businesses should pass the cost of complying with the proposed rule along to consumers, but in this case consumers are patients dependent on Medicaid and Medicare. They aren't allowed and cannot pay more for their medical service, the senators said.
"The facilities dependent on Medicaid and Medicare are not going to be able to handle the $525 million hit for this new rule and they will have to close down or significantly scale back care. This will leave Medicaid and Medicare patients without access to care," said Enzi. -more-
"Many facilities dependent on Medicaid and Medicare are already in serious financial straits and in danger of closing. Ten percent of nursing homes are in bankruptcy because of earlier federal budget cuts that we are working to restore and now the Administration wants to add yet another burden?"
Both the Senate and House voted on a bi-partisan basis to give OSHA at least until Oct. 1, 2001 to fix this and other serious flaws with the rule which include interference with states' workers compensation plans and questions about OSHA's payment of contractors to testify for the rule.
"The White House has ignored the will of Congress and is holding up the $352 billion appropriations bill that funds federal education, health and labor initiatives because it wants to push this rule through before the next administration," said Hutchinson. "It's a bad rule. It's a dangerous rule and it will do more harm than good unless it is taken back to the drawing board and fixed."
The senators said businesses should seek to eliminate repetitive stress injuries and they commended the numerous businesses who are already taking steps without another OSHA mandate.
"The amendment we passed requiring OSHA to delay for one year implementation of its rule was not about whether we should have an ergonomics rule or whether we shouldn't. It most definitely was not to dispute the need to continually strive to improve the safety and health of the American worker. But it was about the right way to go about improving safety. This particular rule is not the right way and asking for time to improve it is not unreasonable," said Enzi.
