The new requirement issued by the Biden Administration to force all nursing home workers to be vaccinated by late September, or else the facility will lose all Medicaid and Medicare funding, has unintended consequences that even a moron could see.
The rationale was to “level the playing field,” by which I assume they mean preventing workers from leaving one facility with a vaccine mandate policy for another that does not have one. So gee, make all employees get vaccinated or the facility loses 90% of its revenue sources. If they don’t have staff, they can’t take care of people anyway.
The problem is that by picking on nursing homes, the employees who don’t want to get jabbed can go work elsewhere, in or outside of health care, in assisted living or hospitals, or MacDonald’s. Anywhere that does not require it.
Nursing homes and everyone else in senior care are suffering from staff shortages as it is. But some arbitrary rule to get nursing home employees vaccinated, or else, misses the mark, big time. According to one recent study, 53% of unvaccinated LTC employees plan to leave for jobs where it is not required. Just what we need, a mass exodus.
Look, I have been vaccinated and I am pretty upset at those who refuse to do it. But this is no way to force the issue, especially in this labor environment. While I understand the intent, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the consequences will be.
