Aging At Home Will Be Harder With Medicaid Cuts

[NCTraveler]

In 2012, Ti Randall of New York City, who has Alzheimer’s disease, had run out of savings. His Social Security and a veteran’s pension helped cover his basic living expenses. But it took Medicaid to provide Randall with other services he needed in order to remain at home.

“He needed companionship and assistance,” says Ann Burgunder, 69, his long-time partner and caregiver. Burgunder, meanwhile, wanted and needed to continue working.

Randall’s needs have since grown. Now, at 93, he must have help bathing, dressing, cooking and toileting. At this point, “he couldn’t be left alone at all,” says Burgunder, who works as a coordinator for New York University's Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Family Support Program. Through Medicaid, Randall has the services of home-care aides 12 hours a day Monday through Friday and half the day on Saturday. Medicaid also pays for his incontinence supplies, which cost more than $300 a month.

Proposed cuts to Medicaid under the American Health Care Act passed by the House recently could change life for Randall and many others. Medicaid is not only an insurance program for low-income people. It’s a lifeline for older adults like Randall who need supportive services to stay at home. At-home services are a lifeline for Medicaid as well, which would otherwise be paying for more expensive care in an institutional setting.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/05/17/aging-at-home-will-be-harder-with-medicaid-cuts/#7eb690ad18f6

[bettyellen]

1. Services like this are standard in other countries- otherwise nursing homes have to take over.

And it's not a good solution for anyone, expensive and at best impersonal.

[leftstreet]

2. GOPers just wanna throw them all in nursing homes

Millions of families are struggling - without compensation - to help their elderly friends and loved ones stay in their homes

More cuts to an already underfunded program will make things even worse

[diane in sf]

3. The goal will be to strip you of your last assets to be incarcerated in a privatized hell hole owned

by friends of tRump, the koch roach brothers, or some such. If we can manage to turn this back into a decent country, you would get help to stay in your own home and preserve as many of your assets as long as possible.