FOR A textbook demonstration of how campaign contributions can buy policy, one need look no further than Louisiana’s nursing homes. No interest group showers more money on the Bayou State’s politicians than nursing homes and their owners. Indeed, the last two governors together collected over $1m in donations from nursing homes; Louisiana legislators and other state officials have raked in many millions more.
This is perhaps not surprising. It is rare that a sector’s profitability is so dependent on the decisions of bureaucrats and politicians who make the critical decisions about how to dole out a state’s Medicaid money.
For nursing home owners, the investment in politicians has paid off handsomely. Every year, the fees the state pays them to house elderly and physically disabled people rise at rates that substantially outpace inflation. Meanwhile, their main competitors—home- and community-based health providers, which provide part-time care for the disabled in their own homes—have seen their rates cut...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2uA4Fjk
EmoticonEmoticon