One of the basic tenets of the Jewish faith is that the elderly deserve deference and respect. The North American federation system funds a continuum of services to the elderly, providing almost one million U.S. Jews over the age of 65 with social activities, healthcare, transportation to and from the doctor's office, housing, food and counseling.

Jewish Federations work to frame opinions and leverage dollars that ensure the Jewish elderly - all elderly people - are able to live out their lives safely and with dignity. Below are some of the key issues that UJC is addressing on behalf of the elderly population in North America.

Managed Care

Managed care is attracting a growing number of elderly consumers who participate in the public health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid. In many areas of the country, the managed care entities do not offer consumers adequate choices in providers of health care services, including the ability to access Jewish long term care facilities. Elderly individuals who are moving from their own homes to a nursing home have been forced to choose between a secular nursing home and one of a different faith. Other elderly individuals who live in a campus setting have been denied the right to return in the community in which they were originally living for convalescent care after a hospitalization. These are serious problems for the Jewish community, which has almost 1 million individuals over the age of 65 and a network of 150 homes and housing facilities for seniors and the disabled. United Jewish Communities is working with Congress and with States through our Federation network to enact legislation that would ensure that individuals required to enroll in managed care should have access to an appropriate faith-based long term care facility, regardless of whether such a facility is part of a managed care network.

Home Health Care

Home health care provides millions of Medicare beneficiaries with a range of services from the administration of medicines to assistance getting out of bed, enabling individuals to continue living independently in the community, rather than going to a nursing home. Home health care is also important for enabling individuals to leave the hospital sooner and return to familiar surroundings of home. United Jewish Communities will work with coalition partners to increase funding for home health care and specifically to increase payments to agencies with a large caseload of medically complex and chronically ill patients. This should ensure that home health care is more widely available to the most vulnerable members of our community.

Medicare

Medicare is the primary means of health care services for elderly individuals in our community. There is a consensus that this program, which covers most inpatient services and visits to a physician, will be insolvent by the year 2010. With a much higher percentage of the elderly individuals in the Jewish community than in the community at large, Medicare is a crucial government program for meeting the health care needs of our community. Currently, a bipartisan commission of experts appointed by Congress and the Administration are meeting to develop a proposal for reforming the program and ensuring its solvency. United Jewish Communities will assess the impact of various proposals for Medicare reform on the Federation system and communicate its concerns to the National Bipartisan Commission on Medicare. The Washington Action Office will also work with members of Congress who are interested in expanding Medicare benefits so that individuals in our community are able to access a broad range of home and community based services.

Medicaid

Medicaid currently finances over half of long term care provided in our community. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides health care services to low income individuals for various health care services. The Washington Action Office has been active in protecting funding for Medicaid and we support the Administration's efforts to make Medicaid more flexible, so that it can be used for home-based care. We will continue to work with Congress and the Administration to develop programs that use Medicaid funding to expand assisted living and other senior housing programs that provide housing. The Washington Action Office will also closely monitor state reimbursement of nursing homes and work with members of Congress and the Administration to ensure that Medicaid managed care rules are structured in a way to preserve access to religiously appropriate care.

HOUSING: Section 202 Housing for the Elderly

The Section 202 housing for the elderly program provides nonprofit organizations loans to construct, maintain and rehabilitate affordable housing for low-income elderly people. Section 202 facilities also provide services to the elderly, such as transportation, laundry and social services. Through the Section 202 program, the Jewish Federation system operates over 100 low-income housing facilities and provides housing assistance and services to over 12,000 low-income elderly people. Over the past few years, funding for this important program has been reduced. The Washington Action Office is working to maintain the structure of the program and advocate for at least this year's funding level of $660 million.