A bill that was sent back to its authors for revision after a rough start with the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee has received unanimous support on its second try.
Sen. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, and the eight cosponsors of “An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission to Study Long-term Home-based and Community-based Care,” were dismayed when the committee tabled the bill, which was the result of several months of effort.
The bill sought to eliminate the waiting lists for home- and community-based care for the elderly and adults with physical disabilities by June of 2011. It also proposed numerous other measures designed to improve access to and funding for the programs, which are designed to keep people living at home for as long as possible.
The bill originally called for $1 million per year in new spending, $300,000 of it to help people being discharged from nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities find support for living at home.
In an effort to consolidate the resources that support those programs, Craven and others had asked the Department of Health and Human Services to merge some related budget accounts, but that was one of the provisions that didn’t make it into the second draft.
“I’m disappointed about that, but I understand that they can’t mix the different money up for different programs,” said Craven.
The new bill also pulls back the requirement for the elimination of wait lists for at-home care and trims about $200,000 per year from the expense of the bill. That money, which would have paid family members to care for elder loved ones at home, is being pursued in another bill sponsored by Rep. James Campbell Sr., R-West Newfield, which is also before the Health and Human Services Committee.
Campbell said his bill is modeled after a similar program in Vermont and a pilot program that’s already in place in Maine.
“It’s something for keeping your mom or dad home by getting some compensation and saving the state money,” said Campbell. “If you have to keep working and put mom in a nursing home, and Medicaid is paying for it, the taxpayers across the country have to pay for it.”
The committee had a workshop scheduled for this week on Campbell’s bill, “An Act to Provide Assistance to Family Members, Friends and Neighbors who Provide Home Health Care for Senior Citizens.”
With both bills carrying fiscal notes that require new spending, the authors know they face an uncertain future, but they’re hoping other lawmakers see the value of the programs and their potential to save money in the long term.
“This is a money saver,” said Craven of the blue ribbon commission’s bill. “I’m expecting this to be funded when everything turns around. We’ve gotten so many e-mails and phone calls from people who want their representatives to head in the direction we got from this committee.”
Craven said she is hopeful that some of the federal stimulus money coming to Maine for the Medicaid program can be used in the short term and that permanent funding can be found later.
“I support both bills 100 percent,” said Campbell. “If they both pass and they want to lump them together, that’s fine.”
(Statehouse News Service)
