Encouraging Steps for Medicaid
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 By Marc Kilmer
The Cincinnati Enquirer discusses a way Ohio could save millions of dollars from its Medicaid program. Currently most funding for Medicaid long-term care is spent for nursing home care, which is extremely expensive. Many in long-term care would prefer to stay in their homes or communities instead of moving to a nursing home. Home and community-based care is also less expensive. Since people prefer it and it’s less expensive, it seems to make sense to care for people in this setting, right? Unfortunately, Medicaid rules prefer nursing home care, forcing many into expensive institutions when they do not want to move (keep that in mind when anyone says government-run health care will save money and serve people better).
There has been movement to change this and make it easier for people to stay in their homes and communities when they receive Medicaid long-term care. This is good for both recipients and taxpayers. It’s unclear what Governor Strickland’s budget proposal dealing with this will be, but it would make a lot of sense if he were to expand home and community-based care. While not all people are better served in it, there is no reason for 79% of Ohio’s long-term care spending to be allocated towards nursing homes.
