States slash Medicaid –old, disabled, vulnerable, as always, pay the price of market excesses
Faced with widening budget shortfalls, several states are rollingback support services for the elderly and disabled. The move is makingit tougher for them to continue living on their own, advocates say.
At least 15 states, including Alabama, Virginia and Massachusetts,are targeting such funding, mostly for programs that allow low-incomeshut-ins to receive personal care — like cooking, cleaning and basichealth services — in their own homes, according to the Center onBudget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning Washington, D.C. thinktank that studies state budgets.
Pruned Programs
- With the economy slowing, cash-strapped states are cutting services for the elderly and disabled:
- The cuts are making it harder for some vulnerable people to stay in their own homes.
- Waiting lists for home and community-based services are lengthening.
- Many states expect to make further cuts in the coming year, as budgets continue to tighten.
Thecutbacks are exacerbating the already long waiting lists for home-caresupport services in many states. That leaves the low-income elderly anddisabled to dip into their meager incomes to hire their own help, reachout to family or charity, or seek more restrictive and expensive carein a nursing home, advocates say.
“We are beginning to see serious cuts and we are expecting thosecuts to get worse,” says JoAnn Lamphere, director of state governmentrelations at AARP, an advocacy group for the elderly.
As the economy falters, declining revenues and tax receipts have ledstate agencies to cut spending, with 41 states facing current orlooming deficits, according to the Center on Budget and PolicyPriorities.
Source/more: Wall St. Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714130153442755.html