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Malloy Proposal Might Help – and Hurt – Chances for Elders to Live at Home

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Friday, February 25, 2011   

HARTFORD, Conn. - Advocates for older Connecticut residents who prefer at-home care to nursing homes say a "share the burden" proposal by Gov. Dannel Malloy to increase the co-pay on home care will price some seniors out.

A recent AARP survey of seniors showed 80 percent of those surveyed, age 50 and older, favor funds being used for home care versus nursing home care. Connecticut currently spends 92 percent of its Medicaid long-term care dollars for older people and adults with disabilities on nursing facility care, and only eight percent on home care services.

Louise Leitao, a nurse with both home care and nursing home experience, says that a mandatory home care cost-share for certain CT Home Care Program clients was added last year for the first time.

"When it went up to 15 percent, hundreds of clients either diminished their community services or dropped out, because they couldn't afford it."

It is estimated that close to 5,000 seniors statewide participate in the non-Medicaid, state-funded portion of the CT Home Care Program and will be affected by this cost-share. They and their advocates worked to convince state officials to lower the co-pay to 6 percent, but Malloy is proposing to raise it back to 15 percent to help fill the state's multi-billion-dollar budget hole. Malloy is also proposing to cap the number of people with less intensive needs who can access the program. Leitao says that will make it more likely that seniors end up in nursing homes.

Leitao, now a supervisor with Connecticut Community Care, Inc., says her mother is one of the seniors who is able to live at home thanks to the available support services, including

"Home health care services, homemakers, companions, errand services, transportation to medical appointments, emergency response system, and case management from your advocate, the staff at any of the access agencies."

Malloy acknowledges that home care is cheaper than nursing home care, and has proposed moving 5,000 nursing home patients who don't need 24-hour-a-day care to community settings in the next five years to save $16 million in Medicaid costs.

The survey from AARP Connecticut is online at http://www.aarp.org/personal-growth/transitions/info-02-2011/voices-america-dreams-challenges.html


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