Suzy Khimm, of NBC News, has made available for download her article, “Biden’s Pledge to Boost Home Caregiver Funding Excluded From Infrastructure Deal”, published on NBC News. The abstract is as follows:
When Morgan Champion brought her 74-year-old father home to live with her, she had little time to prepare. It was early May when she and her sister had found him emaciated and sitting in a soiled diaper at his memory care facility in Tallahassee, Florida, after the pandemic lockdown finally lifted…Overwhelmed, the family discovered that they could apply for a subsidized caregiver to come to their home through Medicaid. The program could provide the help they desperately needed, through a professional caregiver who could tend to Jim’s basic needs.
But weeks have passed, and they’re still waiting to be approved.
Many others are waiting, too: Because the federal government does not require states to provide these benefits for all those who qualify, nearly 820,000 older or disabled Americans were on state waitlists for Medicaid’s home- and community-based services in 2018, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study published last year. Many rely on family members for their most basic needs, including bathing, getting dressed and taking medication. Without outside help, their family members often struggle to balance caregiving with work and face the enormous challenge of keeping their loved ones safe.
Posted by Marin Larkin, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.
Wealth Strategies Journal 