Who Cares For The Caregiver?
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My mother can’t walk, so I take care of her. When I say take care of her, I mean that I cook for her, bathe her, I clean up her place, I do her laundry and run her errands.
It is a life choice that many of us will probably face in the next few years, as our state’s population gets older and requires more attention. Some of us will have to quit our jobs and stay home with a loved one. Others will have to rely on the work of a home health care worker
AP: Home Care Cuts Could Leave Seniors Without Needed Care
Georgia Richardson just wants to do some good.
But a state Senate bill passed last week aimed at eliminating some of Michigan's $942 million budget deficit may soon lower her wages, and her incentives, for doing so.
The Oak Park resident, who three days per week provides assistance as a home care worker to a Detroit senior citizen, said the Republican-backed proposal could break her personal budget - and her heart.
"Could I afford to keep doing this? Probably not," Richardson, 59, said in a quivering voice while seated next to Mildred Lewis, the 71-year-old woman for whom she works. "I came into this just wanting to help. I didn't expect to get this close to someone."
Free Press: Granholm: Senate cuts are DOA
A budget-cutting plan passed by the Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday is "dead on arrival," a spokesperson for Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today.
Press secretary Liz Boyd said Granholm would veto the bills, which would cut state aid to schools by $34 per pupil, and among other things reduce Medicaid payments, revenue sharing to local governments, adult home care programs, welfare aid and grants to local bus systems.
Det. News: State Senate's $600M budget cuts condemned
Educators, city leaders and advocates for the poor, mentally impaired and disabled expressed anger Friday in the wake of some $600 million in state budget cuts passed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
The list of budget-balancing reductions finally became public Thursday night when the Senate voted along partisan lines to slash school aid, health care programs, transportation and a host of other state programs and services.
AP: GOP cuts would hit schools, local governments, help for seniors
Local government and school officials who would face having to reduce spending or dip into savings under budget cuts passed by Senate Republicans said Friday the cuts are just another Band-Aid solution to mending Michigan's budget ills.
The cuts approved Thursday night also drew the ire of medical groups and advocates for the elderly and mentally ill.
"It's mean-spirited and gutless," said Dohn Hoyle, executive director of The Arc Michigan, a Lansing-based group that supports programs for the developmentally disabled.
NY TIMES: Justices to Hear Case on Wages of Home Aides
Evelyn Coke sat in her wood-frame home in Corona, Queens, a hobbled figure, not realizing that this is supposed to be her moment in the spotlight.
For 20 years, she had cared for clients in their homes, bathing them, cooking for them, helping them dress and take their medications. But now, suffering from kidney failure, she is too ill to work.
Her mind and memory are not what they once were, she acknowledges, and as a result she is hazy about the important events that will take place on April 16. On that day, the Supreme Court of the United States is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case in which Ms. Coke, a 73-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, is the sole plaintiff.
EDITORIAL: LTC Sytem Is On Life Support
THE DAILY MINING GAZETTE
Friday, January 12, 2007
EDITORIAL
Health care system is on life support
Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently signed legislation designed to strengthen the states long-term care system. The bills implement recommendations made by the Long-Term Care Task Force appointed by the governor in 2004.
Two recommendations in particular are addressed in the bill cutting red tape and building long-term care partnerships in communities.
Four single point of entry sites have been developed around the state enabling a consumer to obtain information, screening, assessment of need, care planning and support, and referral services at a single location.
AP: Tough '07 could be good for Michigan
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Article published Dec 22, 2006
Tough '07 could be good for Michigan
LANSING — Gov. Jennifer Granholm learned this past year that her skin is a lot thicker than she thought when it comes to handling the slings and arrows of politics.
She’s going to need rhinoceros hide as she heads into a second term in January.
With a weak economy and sluggish revenues again bedeviling the state, the Democratic governor already knows she will have to cut spending and come up with more revenue in the year ahead.
That challenge could actually be an opportunity for the 47-year-old Granholm to get the state on sound financial footing for the first time in years, a move that likely would require changing the state’s tax structure and possibly increasing taxes.
Detroit News: Deficit = more cuts, taxes?
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Deficit = more cuts, taxes?
$1B state shortfall could hurt schools and cities
Charlie Cain and Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Michigan could face more than a $1 billion budget deficit combined over the next two years, triggering additional cutbacks that could again slam public schools, cities and universities.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday that when that figure is added to the potential loss of an additional $2 billion caused by the elimination of the Single Business Tax, "We are looking potentially at a $3 billion hole. That's a huge number. The state is facing probably the most significant budget deficit that we have ever faced."
Long-term care a serious national issue
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Long-term care a serious national issue
Lea Smith Johnson
The Bradenton Herald
I recently attended the National Long-Term Care Symposium in Washington, D.C., moderated by Susan Dentzer of PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Long-term care was presented as a serious issue facing America. Some of the topics covered included: Who needs it and what does it cost? Current statistics and demographics. How to educate people about the gravity of the situation and misconception that Medicare, Medicare supplements or Medicaid will pay for their care. How to pay for it? Incentives implemented that are helping to reduce costs. Forward-thinking ideas to transform long-term care and the health care system in general to reduce costs of medical care.
New York Times: Panel Calls For Big Changes In Medicaid
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Panel Calls for Big Changes in Medicaid
By ROBERT PEAR
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 A federal advisory panel says that long-term care for aging baby boomers threatens to bankrupt Medicaid, and it recommends sweeping changes to rein in costs, including greater use of managed care for the sickest Medicaid recipients.
Free Press Editorial: Change Medicaid To Help Home Care
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Not that you can really put a price tag on it, but national organizations estimate that family caregivers in Michigan provide about $10.5 billion worth of services each year to relatives who are chronically ill, disabled or elderly. According to the National Family Caregivers Association and Family Caregiver Alliance, Michigan ranks eighth among states in numbers of family caregivers and the hours they give for such things as medical, social, financial and housekeeping services.
This is altogether commendable, and most of the people who do it ask nothing in return.
But the scope of family caregiving -- $306 billion worth of services nationally, based on 2004 estimates -- and the aging of the giant baby boomer generation raise questions about how effectively this informal system can be sustained.
That's why a statewide program in Vermont -- and similar pilot programs in Michigan -- makes so much sense. Federal officials should follow these and other leads in rewriting Medicaid laws to make home care much more accessible and keep the elderly out of nursing homes and other, more expensive settings.
The Vermont program, called Choices in Care, makes it possible for the elderly to pay friends or relatives $10 an hour to provide care. In place for about a year, the program addresses the desire of the elderly to stay in their own homes and the shortage of caregivers. It also should be cheaper in the long run.
Michigan's MI-Choice program -- being piloted in Detroit, the Upper Peninsula and the Lansing and Battle Creek areas -- does not go quite as far, but its aim is similar. It lets Medicaid recipients make their own choices on spending their long-term care dollars.
But to embark on these sensible programs, Michigan and other states have to apply for cumbersome waivers from the federal government. The Medicaid program, which states administer, was designed when nursing home care was at its height, before doctors and patients learned that the longer you keep folks at home, the healthier and happier they'll be.
Last year, President George W. Bush indicated he knew this when he asked for more home care money for disabled people in his Medicaid budget. But Medicaid should be overhauled to make clear that people with conditions that qualify for institutional care should be able to decide whether to use those same funds to stay at home.
Michigan ranks 8th in caregiving
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Detroit Free Press
Cassandra Spratling
November 13, 2006
Michigan ranks 8th in the U.S. in the number of family caregivers, the hours of caregiving services given to family members who are chronically ill, disabled and aged and the monetary value of free care were a price tag put on it.
The National Family Caregivers Association and Family Caregiver Alliance recently released the state-by-state analysis of family caregiving based on 2004 data. They estimated the value of services given freely at $306 billion – a 19% increase in the past four years.
Cheboygan Tribune: Raise possible for home health care workers
Raise possible for home health care workers
By ERICA KOLASKI
Tribune Staff Writer
CHEBOYGAN - Local home health care workers could recieve a pay raise as a part of the 2007 state budget that was recently signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Michael Zalewski, spokesman for the Michigan Quality Home Care Campaign, said that the proposed budget for the state's Department of Community Health includes an increase in salaries for the state's more than 42,000 home care workers, including 133 in Cheboygan County.
Niles Daily Star: Governor grants raise to home care workers
Governor grants raise to home care workers
LANSING - Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the proposed Fiscal Year 2007 budget for the Department of Community Health that includes an increase in salaries for the state's more than 42,000 home care workers, including 148 in Cass County.
Beginning in October, home care workers in Cass County will earn $7 per hour, an increase from the $6, to provide the elderly and people with disabilities a range of services including bathing, bathroom assistance, feeding, cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning and transportation to doctor appointments.