Deep state budget cuts put people with disabilities at risk
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010As the nation prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act next week, the New York Times presents disturbing evidence that cash-strapped states are dismantling home-care services that have been helping elderly people and those with disabilities to live in their communities.
Since the start of the recession, at least 25 states and the District of Columbia have made sharp cuts in programs that, ironically, have been demonstrated to save states money because they keep people out of nursing homes.
“The situation is grim, and it’s safe to say that present trends are expected to continue,” said JoAnn Lamphere, the director of state government relations for health and long-term care for AARP. “Nearly every state has proposed cuts of some sort to Medicaid. Some might seem small, but it’s death by a thousand slashes.”
… Bruce Goldberg, director of the Oregon Department of Human Services, said the agency did not have an estimate for how many of the people losing home care would end up in assisted-living facilities or in nursing homes — or, if they did, how the state would pay for them.
“We’re in new territory,” Dr. Goldberg said. “Long-term care is a cobbled-together system with many holes, and they just got deeper.”

In a column in the 