Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute submitted a public comment to the Ohio Department of Aging on Ohio’s draft 2027-2030 State Plan on Aging, outlining how the Buckeye State can make Ohio the best place to age in the nation. Buckeye’s recommendations were included in its recently released report, The Cost of Aging, which offered durable and cost-effective solutions to providing long-term care for Ohio’s aging population. 

In its comments, The Buckeye Institute notes that “Ohio must make significant changes to its long-term care policies and ground them in five fundamental principles: sustainability, consumer choice, cost efficiency, quality improvement, and fiscal responsibility.” To this end, The Buckeye Institute recommended policies that Ohio can adopt to expand and support its long-term care workforce, and to utilize technology to help patients and support caregivers.

By embracing The Buckeye Institute’s recommendations, Ohio can strengthen its community-based care infrastructure, expand the direct care workforce, and deploy advanced technologies to increase care providers’ efficiency and reduce administrative burdens. And the time couldn’t be more urgent. With 2.2 million residents older than 65, an elderly population that is growing faster than the national average, and Medicaid spending that already accounts for more than 50 percent of the state’s budget, the time to address Ohio’s long-term care crisis is now—before fiscal pressures foreclose more affordable solutions.

Read more at BuckeyeInstitute.org/CostofAging.

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