Not in Our Nursing Homes
In Wisconsin, seniors are leading the charge to protect their own healthcare.
George Goehl
MERRILL, WIS. — When the phone rang, it was 11 p.m. Still, Gene Bebel, farmer and retired school principal, picked up. It was Al Curtis, a one-time special education teacher and now resident at Pine Crest Nursing Home, a county-owned facility in Merrill, Wis., population 9,000.
Curtis was angry: He’d gotten word that Pine Crest was on the chopping block, with the county board looking to privatize it.
Bebel, age 84, leapt into action. He first contacted Judy Woller, who for years had run a support organization for victims of domestic violence in this rural county, and who had a reputation as someone who stood up for others. The two began to organize to save Pine Crest, a Lincoln County institution for nearly 70 years.
Soon, they found themselves in the fight of their lives — one that could impact November’s election. I am among a handful of organizers supporting their fight.
Wisconsin has a history of beloved, highly rated, county-owned nursing homes, some going back as many as 150 years. Today, however, anti-government county boards in Wisconsin are making a concerted push to privatize these long-term care facilities without consulting the communities that depend on them. Several have already been sold, including at least one for a fraction of its worth.
The good news is that this move to privatize has stirred up a hornet’s nest. Small-town seniors have been flooding county board meetings across the state, marching in local parades and giving county leaders hell every step of the way.
This fight comes at a time when the national conversation about the elderly has been downright hateful, centered around two older men running for the presidency. Turn on late-night television this summer, and you heard endless jokes about the candidates’ ages. One Stephen Colbert monologue featured a mocked-up image of the Inauguration Day swearing-in using a stack of Depends rather than a book of scripture.
For me, this all happened as my mom was deep into her aging, her body and mind falling apart steadily — and then quickly.
Nationwide, more than 10,000 people turn 65 every day, and the number of people over 85 is expected to double by 2040. For those who are serious about organizing working-class people, that must include older people — and lots of them. Millions of seniors in the United States have been working-class their entire lives, and millions more have slid into poverty since they retired. A movement of working-class people that does not include them is missing the mark by a country mile.
The fight in Wisconsin is special on many fronts. People in rural communities are standing up to protect public healthcare.
In a poll by Merrill’s local newspaper, 85% of county residents said they would support a hike on their own property taxes to keep Pine Crest county-owned.
The issue has already impacted Wisconsin elections. In April, voters gave the boot to three board members in three counties, including two county chairs, who were leading the charge to privatize their nursing homes. They were replaced by candidates who campaigned on keeping them publicly owned.
Now, some small-town seniors are taking this issue straight to the ballot box in November, organizing town halls and phone banks, running radio ads and giving other seniors rides to the polls to support candidates who have a plan to provide more funding for long-term care.
That’s because they understand that the privatization of these beloved, county-owned nursing homes will lead to cost-cutting, staff turnover and lower-quality care. For example, Aria Healthcare, the company that bought the Sauk County Health Care Center, organized under an array of LLCs and brands, has a dismal record.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have cited nursing homes associated with Aria or its owners with 724 deficiencies, 43 infections and $1,603,314 in fines. The deficiencies include failure to report suspected abuse, neglect or theft in a timely manner, failure to provide enough food or fluids to maintain a resident’s health, and failure to honor the residents’ right to voice their grievances without discrimination or reprisal.
Aria Healthcare did not respond to a request for comment.
But like Bebel, Curtis and Woller, rural Wisconsinites are not having it. They are organizing one of the greatest fight backs I’ve seen in a good while — small-town seniors having a third or sometimes fourth act, organizing the fight of their lives, and flipping the script on aging, on rural, and on who gets to be part of the movement to preserve our democracy and create the world we desperately need and deserve.
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George Goehl is a longtime community organizer. He is the host of To See Each Other, a documentary podcast about rural organizing, and the former director of People’s Action, a national people’s organization working in urban, suburban and rural communities.
