Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Cassie James Holdsworth and Nancy Salandra say current Medicaid policy doesn’t provide daily living services to  people with disabilities unless they move to a nursing home. Holdsworth and Salandra call for the passage of the Community Choice Act so that people can get services in their own homes. An excerpt:

Advocates have long been asking Congress to allow people at risk of being admitted to nursing homes to have the option of staying in their own homes with Medicaid dollars. Not only do the vast majority of people prefer living at home; it’s also cheaper.

… So why hasn’t this legislation been approved? The chief barrier is the influential nursing-home industry, which has been entrenched in American society for more than four decades.

Holdsworth and Salandra are director of policy and advocacy and director of independent-living services for Liberty Resources, a nonprofit organization that promotes independent living for people with disabilities in Philadelphia.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 3:04 pm and is filed under commentary, Community Choice Act, housing, independent living, nursing homes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.