A new Eljay LLC analysis of the nation’s Medicaid financing system projecting states will cumulatively under fund the actual cost of providing quality long term care by nearly $4.7 billion for 2009, and finds seniors in the states of New York, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, California and Wisconsin will bear the brunt of the under funding burden at a time when these states and many others are already suffering from rising pressure on state Medicaid budgets.  Those facilities and the seniors under their care unfortunately fall under both “Top Ten” lists below in terms of highest aggregate Medicaid underfunding and highest per patient per day underfunding.

“Yesterday, we outlined how and why the cumulative $4.7 billion Medicaid under funding is significant to the federal health care reform debate,” said Robert Van Dyk, Chair of the American Health Care Association (AHCA). “Today we are focusing needed attention on which states’ seniors suffer from the largest state Medicaid funding gaps at a time of deteriorating budget conditions, and worsening fiscal crises in state capitols across America.”