BuckeyeBlog

While other industries that suck from the teat of Ohio government are experiencing hard times obtaining funding, nursing homes are having their usual success in getting more of your tax money shoveled their way. Already profiting handsomely from Ohio’s Medicaid system, if House Speaker Budish has his way nursing homes will be profiting even more from their political connections. The nursing home situation in Ohio is a good example of why government-run health care won’t be the cost-effective, patient-friendly nirvana that some liberals envision.

Health care analysts generally agree that it is less expensive for taxpayers and better for many Medicaid recipients if long-term care is provided mainly in homes or community settings (the cost of home or community care is one-third of the cost of nursing home care in Ohio). However, as you may imagine, nursing home operators have a different view. It doesn’t matter to them if their services are expensive or if people don’t want to use them. If there were a free market in long-term care, business owners could not disregard consumers in this way and thrive. But when politicians are running the show, it’s pretty easy to convince them to spend your tax money for expensive care that people don’t want.

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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.