Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

SUN EDITORIAL:

Services for seniors

As Baby Boomers grow into retirement, states foolishly cut back programs

Home care for the elderly and the disabled has been cut in many states because of the recession, as The New York Times reported this month. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research group, half of the states have cut such services, and that is a shame.

The services, which include meal delivery, housekeeping and help for family caregivers, are important because they keep people functioning and out of long-term care facilities. Unfortunately, advocates for seniors and the disabled say they fear more cuts are to come.

“The situation is grim, and it’s safe to say that present trends are expected to continue,” JoAnn Lamphere of AARP told the Times. “Nearly every state has proposed cuts of some sort to Medicaid. Some might seem small, but it’s death by a thousand slashes.”

Cutting in-home and community-based services will save states in the short term, but the cuts are expected to have significant ramifications over time. It is likely that many people who depend on those preventive services will eventually have to go to nursing homes or long-term care facilities, and that is costly. For example, in Oregon, the state Medicaid program pays on average $1,500 a month for services that help people stay in their homes, but a nursing home costs $5,900 a month.

“We’re in new territory,” said Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Human Services Department. “Long-term care is a cobbled-together system with many holes, and they just got deeper.”

The holes in the system are about to get even deeper. As states cut or freeze spending, demand is rising for services funded by Medicaid. The first wave of Baby Boomers turns 65 next year.

Nevada will undoubtedly feel the pain. More than a quarter of the population is in the Baby Boom generation, and the U.S. Census Bureau projects that senior citizens will be the fastest-growing segment of the state’s population over the next decade.

In 2008, state population grew by 1.4 percent, but the Census Bureau estimated that the population of people 65 and older grew by 3.9 percent. And, as the Las Vegas Sun reported in January, the state has a dearth of services.

“Nevada doesn’t put enough money into Medicaid and the eligibility standards are very high,” said Larry Matheis, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Association. “We put so little money into it that people wind up on Medicaid only when they’re very sick. The problem is that many of these seniors don’t get any early intervention or preventive care.”

Early intervention and preventive care appear to be easy cuts for lawmakers across the country looking to trim budgets, but those cuts are shortsighted. The cuts mean that more people will deal with serious illnesses and afflictions and that will add to the states’ financial burden. Officials at both the state and federal levels should commit to finding ways to continue providing these sensible programs.

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