Home Health & Hospice Week

The onslaught against state-funded home care programs continues as lawmakers look to balance budgets, but some seniors are fighting back.

In North Dakota, the state Senate has included an $800,000 increase for home care services in its proposed budget versus the $5.4 million increase over two years Gov. John Hoeven (R) has recommended, reports Associated Press. The budget also includes requirements that will make it harder to qualify for home care services. Currently, residents can qualify if they own a home and have less than $50,000 in assets; the proposal would make that threshold $20,000.

The changes would cut about 450 seniors from the 1,300 now served by the program, AP says. The state already has stopped taking new patients for the program. The Senate must come to an agreement with the state House on the proposal.

In Arkansas, a $62 million cut to the state 2003 budget means Area Agency on Aging home care spending will fall by $200,000 for the rest of the year, resulting in 70 seniors being dropped from the program, says the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

And the state's Disabilities Services Division will cut $228,000 from its grants to community programs including Easter Seals, which will mean a cutback to services to homebound disabled residents, the paper says.

In the Lone Star state a group of health care activists gathered outside the state Capitol March 11, protesting a 12.5 percent proposed cut to the Health and Human Services Commission budget that will translate to reduced home care for 59,000 elderly and disabled Texans, reports AP.

Michigan's Medicaid waiver program for home care, MI Choice, already suffered a $26 million spending cut in December, according to a release from the state's AAAs. The cut forced the program to stop accepting new enrollees.

But Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) has proposed to reopen the program in the budget she sent to the state legislature, the AAAs applaud.