Hey, John.
Hi, Rebecca. Thanks for the catches. I don't.
On the details. I'm.
By too many cooks in the kitchen over here and.
Elections. Geez, they're really fast. They have a deadline.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, it's cool.
Yeah, thanks.
All right.
Since we spoke last Rebecca, we had a.
I'm going to talk about the.
The CDC chair.
Lena Khan came to.
Baraboo, Wisconsin population 12,000 to.
Do an event with us, which.
Is really not like.
It's path. It's not in her jurisdiction to like address the
issue, but her presence.
Brought media. We've not been able to get otherwise when we got
a great Wisconsin public media hit that.
Put pressure on some of the decision makers were dealing with.
Is she from there or is it just.
To be really honest, we.
Secretary of a Sarah was going to come.
And there became a reason that that didn't make sense for them
politically. And I think they felt like they had to make it up
for us. And.
You know, and she's very interested in, you know, kind of.
Private equity gobbling up health care. So it was a close enough.
It was a great, great save for us. But.
Yeah, it's pretty, pretty, pretty cool.
That's great.
I don't know if you saw Kamala announced.
He's going to mass a big Medicare expansion today and she's doing
it right now in the view. So.
And the view, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's great.
I don't know if you know my wife, I Jim Poo, but she's like.
Kind of involved in that. And so she was.
Pretty excited and.
Had needed me to show her how to get under the view.
Not something she watches regularly.
Yes, right. Exactly.
Oh, it looks like media is showing up.
Oh, okay.
Start now.
I'm going to start here.
Yeah.
Okay.
Welcome everybody. I appreciate everybody coming.
Hello, my name is George Gail.
And senior voters for care would like to welcome you to the call today.
A little bit about me.
I'm the former director of an organization called People's Action.
And I now lead addition action where we support rural and working
with all of us.
And I also have a podcast called to see each other.
I bring that up because this season just came out and follow small
town seniors in Wisconsin.
Fighting to save their beloved county owners and homes from
privatization.
Today we're here to discuss the issues long-term care and nursing
home clothes.
I also have a podcast called to see each other.
I bring that up because this season just came out and follow small
town seniors in Wisconsin.
We're here to discuss the issues long-term care and nursing home
closures in the state.
A topic that we think has become of significant concern for voters
and could play a defining role in the November election.
In recent years here in Wisconsin, we've seen a disturbing trend
with a wave of nursing home closures and the privatization of
nonprofit and county owned facilities.
These changes leave countless seniors homeless without proper
housing.
We've seen this happen to move two or three hours away from their
home community to get care.
Since 2020, at least 23 nursing homes across the state have
closed their doors.
And before that, from 2016 to 2021, there were two closures.
This summer in Wisconsin, there have been four concern efforts by
county boards to privatize beloved county owned nursing homes.
Most of them fought star facilities and all on strong
financial footing.
This issue has stirred up a hornet's nest with seniors
flooding into county board meetings, marching in local parades
and giving county leaders hell every step of the way.
So to better understand how the people of Wisconsin feel about
the state of care, we commissioned a poll in partnership with
Heart Research Associates.
So we, the Wisconsin public and elected leaders could truly
understand how Wisconsin seniors in rural areas feel about long-term
care.
We're happy to take questions at the end of the call.
And we have Rebecca Nasser from Heart Research on the line to
answer questions about methodology and the findings.
Our colleagues at L Communications will send you the exact
poll data after the call.
So now I want to share some of the findings, especially ones that
show how bipartisan this issue really is.
Across party lines, 86% of senior voters, the cost of long-term
care is unaffordable with 57% describing it as very unreasonable.
There's also a broad opposition to privatizing long-term care
facilities with 65%.
I got to note there.
Sorry, with 65% of swing voters and 64% of independent voters
opposing the sale of public nursing homes to private companies,
these voters believe privatization will worsen affordability
and care quality.
In the organization that's taking place to resist privatization
of care in St. Croix, Lincoln, Portage and Salk counties, the
people involved include Democrats, independents and Republicans.
In more than one meeting, we've heard people say, you know, on
this issue, we can agree.
Our poll findings confirm this is more than an anecdote.
Here are some popular solutions to the care crisis.
The most popular solution with rural seniors, government
support to raise wages to attract and retain long-term care
workers, especially in smaller towns and rural areas.
This is shared by 93% of participants overall, including
87% of Republicans and 93% of independents.
Also popular, expanding Medicaid to increase access to
necessary long-term care with 87% overall backing this
initiative, including 93% of independents.
I just got a pause for a second here and say, I think this is
especially noteworthy in this election because today Vice President
Harris announced a proposal to expand Medicare to cover long-term
care, which it currently does not.
Finally, 82% of the people we polled support more federal
funding to support public nursing homes and build new facilities
showing this is a priority across political lines.
This one includes 81% of independent voters.
With Wisconsin being a key swing state and seniors making up such
a powerful voting bloc, we think presidential campaigns and the
national media should pay attention to this issue.
Seniors in Wisconsin truly could be the tipping point in
deciding which candidate wins the election and potentially the
presidency itself.
There was a recent CNN piece that noted the senior vote is
particularly up for grabs in this election.
Looking at current polling, some are saying it is quite
possible that Kamala Harris could win the senior vote in 2024.
That would make her the first Democrat to do so since
Al Gore did 24 years ago.
There's a long-term care crisis in the country and in Wisconsin.
We see from this poll voters are looking for leadership on the
issue and candidates who can offer real solutions.
Our last finding, our poll found that to the question of if you
found out a candidate had a plan to provide more funding for
long-term care, to ensure that those who need it can access it,
would you feel more favorable about that candidate?
71% of swing voters and 64% of independent voters said yes.
Now I'd like to turn it over to Judy Bri from Wisconsin voters
for seeing, sorry, Wisconsin voters for care.
She's going to talk about the grassroots fight to save a
public nursing home in Salt County and what it means for families
in Wisconsin and across the country.
Welcome, Judy.
I'm sorry.
I'm Judy Bri.
I'm a retired school speech language therapist and I've
lived in Saw County for over 30 years.
In September, just last month, the Saw County Board voted to sell
our county-owned nursing home, which has been part of our community
since 1871.
And it's being sold to a for-profit corporation with a very,
very poor track record for care.
I don't think a for-profit corporation should be able to come
in and pay since on the dollar to buy a nursing home
that we've been paying taxes toward for decades.
What this poll shows is that most Wisconsin seniors agree with
me by a two-to-one margin, including 65% of swing voters.
Nursing homes are an important part of long-term care,
but they are just one part of the care infrastructure we need.
This poll tells us that today most seniors in rural communities
like mine don't believe there is enough affordable quality
long-term care.
So the need for long-term care is only going to grow.
A report by the research arm of the Wisconsin Association of
Counties published a report in September saying that the state
will need to add 33,000 beds for seniors by the end of the
decade.
What's needed and what's widely supported is investing public
funding for the things we need, like public nursing homes in
every county in the state.
Higher wages to attract and retain care workers in rural
communities and expanding Medicaid to more seniors.
Thank you.
Thank you, Judy.
That's great.
Now I'd like to turn it over to Dora Goreski.
Dora has been very involved in the fight to save pine crest,
a county owned nursing home in Lincoln County from being
privatized, and her husband also resided there.
Welcome Dora.
Hi, Dora.
Hi, I'm Dora Goreski.
And my husband and Ken pretty grew up in rural Wisconsin.
I was born in Merrill and Ken was born in Annago.
And during the early years of our lives, we traveled.
Ken was in the military and I was traveling while I was doing
my education.
When we were married, we moved to Gleason.
And we loved Gleason.
And when we were invited to join the town of Russell,
first responder unit, we were excited and we took classes
and became emergency medical technicians.
And as in that capacity, we would answer calls all day
long and sometimes late or any hour of the night to help our
community with health issues or car accidents.
And we worked hard to be part of the community.
About 11 years old, my husband, Ken,
developed Alzheimer's.
And I took care of him as it progressed until he developed
COVID and the second time he got COVID,
he was severely incapacitated.
The care he required was more than I could provide.
When he was leaving the hospital, they told him that there was no
way that one person could handle the issues that he was having
was falling all the time.
And so when he was leaving the hospital, I was terrified.
I took care of him as best I could.
But then he was, it was impossible.
And I knew that I couldn't pay over $10,000 a month to afford
in home nursing care.
And then someone suggested pine crust nursing home,
which is in our community.
It's close by.
It's a five star rated nursing home.
And it affords the fact that I could go there any time of the
day.
I could go every day.
I could go more than once a day.
And it was affordable thanks to Medicare.
And there were family, friends, neighbors who worked there.
The care was exceptional.
They knew Ken and his good days.
And so they were more than happy to take care of him in his
suffering.
Ken had lived a long time in a good life,
providing for, well, he was a martial artist and taught,
taught deputy sheriffs and Lincoln County and trained
deputy sheriffs in Marathon County.
And he spent his last days at pine crust.
Died in December of 23.
So when members of the county board, the Lincoln County board of
supervisors decided they wanted to sell pine crust to a out of
state corporation, I just, I couldn't stand by and let it
happen.
And I've been working with my neighbors and a lot of friends
ever since then to keep the county nursing home open and,
and run and, and governed by us, the people of Lincoln County.
I'm sharing with you because each number on that survey
represents someone's family, someone's experience with needing
or future need for long term care as a senior.
You look at the survey results and I'm not surprised that because
because rocketing costs, corporate takers of our nursing care system,
lack of quality care workers, lack of money to run them properly
as, as taking place in this state.
We know that more can be done to sports seniors, especially since
we're growing in numbers in this community and throughout the United
States.
As the survey demonstrates,
we are going to support politicians who are going to invest in our future
and the future of our communities.
Thank you, door.
And thanks for sharing your story and sharing the story of Ken and pine
crust and Judy for your leadership in Sauk County.
I just said to your point of us not being surprised.
I know a lot of this organizing started with an organizer doing one on
ones in rural parts of the state asking people what issues were most pressing
for them and nearly nine out of 10 said the challenge of aging in a rural
place.
And that is a, that's a pretty high number.
And this poll shows that, that, that was our small sample size and that
that little poll was, was actually, you know, kind of right on target.
So with that, we are happy to open it up for questions and a reminder, Rebecca
from heart research associates who led the poll is here to answer any questions
you have about the poll itself and the methodology behind it.
So I'm guessing it's best to just kind of put your name in the queue and say
you're, you'd love to, you know, you've got a question and then we'll, we'll get you
live.
And if you can see that there's a Q and A section we can, we can bring you on
to hear you or we can also answer your question through the chat here if you have
questions.
Wait a second. Here we go.
Yeah, it looks like Eric Gunn from the Wisconsin examiner has a question.
I don't know if we can help.
Bring.
There.
Okay.
Oh, could we share a few top ones from the poll Eric's asking like.
Sure, I would just say a few.
I think some of the most interesting ones is around kind of bipartisanships,
bipartisan support.
So the number one solution that was named from rural seniors in Wisconsin was to
the care crisis was government support to raise wages to attract and retain long-term
care workers, especially in smaller towns and rural communities.
This is shared by 93% of participants overall, including 87% of Republicans and
93% of independence.
Also popular was the idea of expanding Medicaid to increase access to necessary
long-term care with 87% backing this initiative, including 93% of independence.
We said earlier, this is especially noteworthy.
I don't know if you saw that.
Today, Vice President Harris on the view announced a proposal to expand Medicaid,
or Medicare rather, to cover long-term care, which it currently does not currently.
People have to get long-term care support through Medicaid, which also means people
either need to be a low income or spend down their assets to qualify.
I would say one last thing on the kind of is because we're in an election year.
The poll found to the question of if you found a candidate had a plan to provide
more funding for long-term care, to ensure that those who need it can access it,
would you feel more favorable that candidate?
And 71% of swing voters and 64% of independent voters said yes.
So, and we'll send you the full findings here afterwards.
And then Joel Blyfis, why is this happening in four counties at once?
Wisconsin, is there a coordinated movement to Products County Homes in Wisconsin?
If so, who do you think is promoting it?
I'll give my take, and if Judy and Dora have a take, it feels like there's a coordinated effort.
We have not been able to determine who's coordinating it.
In many meetings I've been, and it seems like very much it's just anti-government
that this is not the role of healthcare particularly, or of the county,
or of government period.
These nursing homes are on strong financial footing, so that is not an actual credible argument.
So, it feels ideological.
I mean, we have seen some through lines like the broker for the sale in a number of counties
has been Marcus and Millichap, which is owned by a billionaire who lives out,
and it looks like some gated community in California, but we don't know that they are driving.
So, we don't know what's driving it, but it definitely seems concerted.
And then we have another question by the results.
We're statewide, not just in the four affected counties.
Great question.
Andrew from CAPCOM.
All right.
These issues are resonating statewide, not just in places where the threat of privatizing these homes is more acute.
I think Rebecca, if we could bring you on to just say a little bit about who we polled and who we didn't,
because we didn't just focus in those four counties.
Sure thing. Absolutely. Happy to.
So, yeah, the poll, you're correct. The poll was a statewide poll of likely 2024 voters.
And the sample was 400 voters statewide, and then we did an over sample of 400 voters in small town rural counties.
And we waited those interviews in those counties back to their proper proportion statewide.
So, it is a representative cross section of likely voters across the state.
And as George has said, the findings are very consistent across the across the state and across the political spectrum in terms of people's concern about this and their support for the different policy proposals that we had them react to.
And the phone, I should say that the poll was conducted by phone and text to web.
Most of the interviews were phone and about a third were text to web.
That's great. And maybe a little bit about the political makeup of who was polled. I think sure.
Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. So again, it is a representative cross section of the of voters likely voters across the state.
And so the, it skews a little more Republican. It's about half. It's 49% people who self-identifies Republicans.
42% Democrats and 9% independents.
And so it's that's kind of in line with the political leanings of the of the state.
Yeah, that's great. I'm gonna look for any other questions people should pop them in.
I think we're gonna somebody asked that we can drop a link to the poll results in the chapter.
Please, we're gonna send it out the whole package in the email right after this zoom. So everybody that is on here will get that.
I think I'll just say that to Eric's question.
Well, first clarifying the question question for Miss Gorsky.
What's the status of the effort for the Lincoln County home pine crest Dora.
You can come off mute mute. I don't know if you know you're not on video door that might be on purpose. But if you wanted to share kind of where things are at in Lincoln County.
You're currently on mute though.
There. Okay. Am I on? Yeah, you sound great.
Okay, but what's happening in Lincoln County is that we stop the sale once basically by having questions about how they were proceeding with their sale, whether it was actually legal the procedures that they were doing.
And then now they're trying again to find they've got a broker and they're trying once again to find another buyer.
So it's not sold.
But unfortunately they haven't given up the idea that they, the county supervisors haven't given up the idea that they can't afford to run a nursing home on county taxes.
And that's right. Thank you, Dora. And just to say like, you know, we have a poll here that says this is an issue with political residents, but very little reported on, but in three counties where there was an effort to privatize.
Sock Portage and Lincoln, we saw that this issue had some residents in the April elections.
And in Lincoln and Portage counties, the county chairs, who were really the drivers of privatizing the county on nursing home and pretty hell bent on doing it.
We're voted out in April and replaced by candidates who supported keeping the nursing home county on. So we already have some evidence if anybody wants.
Some of the documentation around that we're happy to share it. And then I think to Eric's question of what are the plans for getting this info out to voters.
Broadly, certainly we're hoping there's good media coverage from today. We think that might be buoyed by the good luck of Vice President Harris's announcement.
But then we are actually doing phone canvases to voters. There are radio ads and billboard spots being launched to get information to voters about where candidates stand on long term care issues, both the privatization issue, but also, you know, the issue more broadly.
Any other questions.
We got a few more minutes.
The poll doesn't really get into this question around private equity interest in Wisconsin. I think we are trying to determine and there's a great investigative piece to be done here. I think to this earlier question of was driving this, what seems like an orchestrated push to privatize across the county.
We should note that this happened in St. Croix and voters. They are organized quickly and we're able to defeat that effort. I think that took that vote took place in August.
So I think that I think that's work. We would love to see the media do anybody that's investigated journalism that piece has not been done.
So, but there's and right now most of the buyers are not.
Most of the buyers are smaller the area that Judy mentioned is the most.
You know, dismal has most dismal track record of any of the buyers that we have faced so far and it's definitely also worth an investigative piece.
Any other questions.
Well, we want to thank so many of you for attending. As we said, if you, the folks at L communications are going to send you the full package here in a few minutes.
And if you have questions, want to interview people in some of the counties across the state, Judy, Dora, others that are involved in the work or learn more about the poll, like what we have good availability for you and we'll make sure we get you what you need for anything you're going to write.
Yes, and we look forward and hope to see some great coverage down the road. Many thanks.