Tougher eligibility requirements would boot about 20,000 elderly and disabled Missourians off of state aid for in-home and nursing home care under Governor Greitens’ proposed state budget that begins July 1. Rep. Gina Mitten (D-St. Louis) says taxpayers would ultimately pay the price.
Rep. Gina Mitten (D-St-Louis)
“We’re cutting services in a way that pushes them into skilled nursing and other facilities that not only diminish quality of life, but also and, very importantly I think to the taxpayers, costs the taxpayers more,” says Mitten.
About 60,000 Missourians currently receive state aid for such services.
“The reduction in services to in-home care, to me, is a perfect example of the majority party being penny wise and pound foolish. Those services enable folks to live independently in their own homes and not only creates a quality of life for our senior citizens and persons living with disability, but more important, if we not provide those services in home at a much lower cost, the only other alternative is to then go to skilled nursing care,” says Mitten. “Why are we looking at cutting services that help people live independently in their own homes, live longer and have a great quality of life, which I think that should be a non-partisan issue.”
Greitens’ move would save about $52 million in his proposed $27 billion budget outline.
His spending plan also includes a 3% reduction in state reimbursements for Medicaid providers.
Greitens says Missouri’s budget is broken and blames Obamacare for spending cuts in the current and proposed budgets.
