The post’s title says it all. According to Open Congress, Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken voted to cut Medicare’s home care budget by 14.5 percent:

By a vote of 53 to 41, the Senate on Saturday rejected a Republican effort to block cutbacks in payments to home health agencies that provide nursing care and therapy to homebound Medicare beneficiaries.

Republicans voted against the cuts, saying they would hurt some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Most Democrats supported the cutbacks, saying they would eliminate waste and inefficiency in home care.

The Democrats’ health care bill would reduce projected Medicare spending on home care by $43 billion, or 13 percent, over the next 10 years. The savings would help offset the cost of subsidizing coverage for the uninsured.

People, it’s time we let Washington know that gutting the budget of one of the most efficient government programs has us seeing red. Saying that the cost difference between paying for home care and staying in a hospital or a nursing facility is substantial is understatement. Saying it’s gigantic is getting close.

It isn’t surprising that Sen. Franken voted against this amendment. He’s known as a hotheaded idiot and as Harry Reid’s puppet. His vote isn’t surprising because he isn’t known for being particularly compassionate.

Sen. Klobuchar’s vote is surprising, though, because this is a stupid vote on her behalf. If she thinks she won’t get hurt by this vote in 2012, then she isn’t terribly bright. What’s her defense of this vote? The cuts start immediately, which means real people will be dramatically hurt before the 2012 election starts.

According to Neil Johnson’s interview with Tom Hauser, 70-80,000 people would’ve been affected by these cuts in 2007:

HAUSER: How many Minnesotans right now have home care?
JOHNSON: Well, we’re looking at…the estimates are 68,000-70,0000 people last year, in 2007 excuse me, & 28,000 received Medicare services & another 30-40,000 received medical assistance services.

How can Sen. Franken or Sen. Klobuchar justify casting this cold-hearted vote? Ed notes here that Sen. Baucus tries explaining the budget cuts:

“We are reducing overpayments,” Mr. Baucus said. “We are rooting out fraud. We are getting the waste out. The savings go back in Medicare and extend the solvency of the trust fund.”

That type of explanation won’t work when Ed’s doing the examining:

Baucus is wrong on both counts. The money goes to funding coverage of the uninsured, which comes primarily through Medicaid, not Medicare, and federal subsidies in the exchange program. The money will go out of Medicare and not come back, which should be rather obvious anyway. If the money stayed in Medicare, it wouldn’t be cut out of it in an amendment, and be part of almost $500 billion in proposed Medicare cuts in ObamaCare proposals.

As for “reducing overpayments,” that’s Beltway speak for rationing. Who defines overpayment? It’s not the providers. This is just another compensation cut that will force more providers out of the Medicare home health care market. That means fewer choices, or none at all, for invalid seniors who rely on home health care to survive. It’s no different than any of the other cuts to provider compensation that already has many of them refusing to take Medicare patients.

The money cut from Medicare’s home care budget will hurt real people as attested to by Neil Johnson. Sen. Baucus’s explanation, aka spin, won’t protect Sen. Klobuchar when she faces the voters in 2012. There are votes that get people upset and there are votes that scare people. Sen. Klobuchar’s vote to cut Medicare’s home care budget scares real people.

Real people have parents who are in nursing facilities or who are nearing that stage in life. These families know that a lengthy stay in one of these facilities can bankrupt a family. In that very real sense, Sen. Klobuchar and Sen. Franken just voted to put families in financial peril.

Rest assured, I won’t be the only person who will remind voters of Sen. Klobuchar’s vote in 2012. If I’d just cast a vote like that, I’d be worried about 2012 already.

Technorati: Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, Home Care, Medicare, Budget Cuts, Max Baucus, Harry Reid, Nursing Homes, Elections