AARP Backs Home Health Care Bill

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“Empowered at Home Act” would reduce costly Medicaid bias

June 4, 2009 -- WASHINGTON—More than one million Americans are living in nursing homes, but many would prefer to receive the services they need in their own homes, where they would be more comfortable and potentially save the health care system money in the long run. Unfortunately, many Americans who want to be cared for at home can’t because of a costly institutional bias in Medicaid, which pays for nearly two-thirds of the country’s nursing home residents.

While state Medicaid programs are required to provide nursing home care, home and community-based services that are often less expensive are optional, leaving them first in line to be cut in a poor economy.

AARP is working with members of Congress to end this bias that forces too many Americans out of their homes and costs us all too much. The Association today endorsed the “Empowered at Home Act” (H.R. 2688) sponsored by Representatives Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Diana DeGette (D-CO), which would provide incentives and greater opportunities for states to expand access to home and community-based services. AARP has also endorsed a bipartisan companion bill in the Senate sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

“Representatives Pallone and DeGette, along with their Senate colleagues, are true champions of health reform,” said AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen. “Their common sense legislation will give more Americans a chance to live comfortably in their homes, instead of in often more costly institutions. AARP is proud to endorse the ‘Empowered at Home Act,’ and we look forward to working with Representatives Pallone and DeGette as well as Senators Kerry and Grassley, to enact this legislation as one of the most important parts of health care reform.”

Research by AARP’s Public Policy Institute has found 89 percent of people 50-plus want to remain in their homes as they age. Greater access to home and community-based services, along with the help of properly supported family caregivers, could make this goal possible for hundreds of thousands of people who otherwise face life in costly nursing homes. AARP estimates that on average, Medicaid can care for three people with home and community-based services for the same cost as one person in a nursing home.

Hansen added: “There’s no excuse for a program as critical as Medicaid to force people into more expensive institutions when we could be saving money and improving the quality of life for so many Americans.”

More information on home and community based care is available in AARP’s latest fact sheet at http://www.aarp.org/research/housing-mobility/homecare/fs_hcbs_hcr.html.

For details on AARP’s health reform priorities, including long-term care, visit http://www.aarp.org/governmentwatch

Source: AARP