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Disabled, Elderly Advocates say
Budget Damaging to Goals
Gongwer News Service, August 1, 2006
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Despite a small increase in the 2006-07 Department of Community
Health budget for the care of the disabled and elderly,
advocates for those groups say the process took a turn away from
the long-term care goals of the federal government and a
majority of other states.
On the positive side, long-term home health care workers saw a
long-overdue increase in the base rate, from a $5.15 an hour
minimum to $7 an hour, and families will get a modest $10 a week
increase in personal care reimbursement from Medicaid,
representatives from The Michigan Olmstead Coalition said on
Tuesday of the latest budget which was approved last week.
Another positive in the budget was that the state will now
require more detailed information about what happens to nursing
home complaints, said Sarah Slocum, state long-term care
ombudsman for DCH's Office of Services to the Aging.
"We want to quantify the problem and know how big it is and how
to fix it," she said.
She also applauded provisions in the budget that earmark excess
money, should there be any, to go to wages of nursing home
employees and community mental health workers.
But with that progress came a major setback, said RoAnne Chaney,
health policy director at the Michigan Disability Rights
Coalition.
She said lawmakers went against federal policy and
recommendations of a state taskforce when it effectively capped
Medicaid funds available for families who choose in-home care at
$100 million, while leaving nearly $1.6 billion for those who
choose institutional care such as nursing homes.
That cap will force many families to choose the more expensive
institutional route if money for in-home care isn't available,
which is contrary to the goal of helping the disabled and
elderly integrate into their communities, said Mark Cody, legal
director for Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services.
He said the in-home care program is "severely underfunded," down
by about $40 million over recent years.
Additionally, while workers who care for the disabled and
elderly in their homes will get a pay raise, Michigan's minimum
hourly rate is still below the national average of $8 an hour.
Added to the low wages is the fact that about 40 percent of
people in that field have no access to health care coverage and
the turnover rate equals about 70 percent annually, which costs
the state an extra $120 million a year in rehiring and training
costs, the group said.
Bill Knox from the AARP said reducing options for long-term care
only maintains the institutional bias state lawmakers have held
for more than 40 years.
"The system should be customer-friendly and customer driven, not
one that caters to institutions," he said.
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