'They're scared': A two-pronged scheme from Trump and the GOP threatens America's seniors

[justaprogressive]

In a top-rated nursing home in Alexandria, Virginia, the Rev. Donald Goodness is cared for by nurses and aides from various parts of Africa. One of them, Jackline Conteh, a naturalized citizen and nurse assistant from Sierra Leone, bathes and helps dress him most days and vigilantly intercepts any meal headed his way that contains gluten, as Goodness has celiac disease.

“We are full of people who come from other countries,” Goodness, 92, said about Goodwin House Alexandria’s staff. Without them, the retired Episcopal priest said, “I would be, and my building would be, desolate.”

The long-term health care industry is facing a double whammy from President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants and the GOP’s proposals to reduce Medicaid spending. The industry is highly dependent on foreign workers: More than 800,000 immigrants and naturalized citizens comprise 28% of direct care employees at home care agencies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care companies.

But in January, the Trump administration rescinded former President Joe Biden’s 2021 policy that protected health care facilities from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. The administration’s broad immigration crackdown threatens to drastically reduce the number of current and future workers for the industry. “People may be here on a green card, and they are afraid ICE is going to show up,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofits that care for older adults.

Existing staffing shortages and quality-of-care problems would be compounded by other policies pushed by Trump and the Republican-led Congress, according to nursing home officials, resident advocates, and academic experts. Federal spending cuts under negotiation may strip nursing homes of some of their largest revenue sources by limiting ways states leverage Medicaid money and making it harder for new nursing home residents to retroactively qualify for Medicaid. Care for 6 in 10 residents is paid for by Medicaid, the state-federal health program for poor or disabled Americans.

https://www.alternet.org/a-two-prong-threat-from-trump-and-the-gop-is-threatening-seniors/

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Where I currently live, the many Aides are from other parts of the world.

Somalia
Nigeria
Liberia
Jamaica
India

They are good and hard working people who have Nursing and Nurse's Aide backgrounds. Some I would say have Green cards and are heavily vetted before they are hired. Others are Naturalized citizens from parts of the world that received refugee status during the Bush and Obama years. Who in the world does the Trump regime going to fill these jobs when all the workers are deported? Millions of disabled and aging Seniors will then be thrusted upon their families to take care of them?

It's the CRUELTY, people!