Cecily O'Connor
RedwoodAge.com
Tens of thousands of low-income California seniors are losing some - or all - of their in-home care and other support services now that sweeping budget cuts from the state's 2009 fiscal crisis have gone into effect, a new study finds.
Among the most at risk are seniors with Alzheimer's disease whose families rely on Alzheimer's centers that will soon be without state funding, according to researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Also hurting are low-income seniors with disabilities, who often fall back on several safety-net programs that both supplement their incomes and give them access to free or subsidized in-home care.
While aging, and the subsequent need for increased services is a nationwide occurrence, the demands in California are particularly high. Older residents and their caregivers in the Golden State, which ranks first in the number of adults aged 65 and over, were already scrambling to cope with budget cuts that seriously limit vital health and human services. More reductions went into effect Oct. 1.
Now the state's hundreds of cities and 58 counties are learning sales tax revenue fell sharply in the first half of the year, which means local government agencies will be making more cuts.
"These kinds of cuts hit our most vulnerable citizens: seniors with disabilities and low incomes who typically have no resources to fall back on and little in the way of additional family support," said Steven P. Wallace, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and a co-author of the study.
The study - based on recent data, published research and nearly two-dozen interviews with program and services experts - outlined several ways in which the state's financial woes are pushing some seniors closer to the poverty line. Many of these adults often rely on multiple programs to remain safely in their homes, and out of hospitals and nursing homes on a full-time basis.
'Rethink Punishing Cuts'
Researchers highlighted how the state has axed funding to centers that care for
Alzheimer's patients during the day. As a result, many centers will shorten
their hours of service or close altogether.
Meanwhile, the In-Home Supportive Services Program, which helps disabled seniors pay for in-home care, has been reduced by 30 percent. That means within a month about 30 percent of individuals enrolled in the program - two-thirds of whom are elderly - will lose some or all of their benefits.
"We need lawmakers to rethink these punishing cuts," said Bruce Chernof, president of the SCAN Foundation, which funded the research. "With a rapidly growing older population, we need to make our publicly funded long-term care system more efficient and effective, and this report shows that the cuts do neither."
No Day Care
The state's adult day health care centers, which serve more than 37,000 seniors,
were also scheduled for Oct. 1 cuts until a federal judge issued an injunction
in September that prevented California from eliminating services until
low-income, elderly and disabled individuals are provided other Medi-Cal
services to prevent their institutionalization. Still, many of the seniors who
frequent centers will still experience declines in their Supplemental Security
Income checks.
"It means the meal seniors get at an adult day health care center may be the only meal of the day," Wallace said. "They won't have the income they need to pay for all of their basic necessities."
The cuts to long-term care programs that support the low-income or disabled elderly are expected to shave about $500 million from California's budget. However, the cuts may ultimately have the reverse effect, by forcing seniors further into poverty and, ultimately, forcing some into Medi-Cal supported nursing homes, Wallace said.
"As a state, we have two choices," Wallace said. "We can either help seniors live with dignity in their own homes, or we can reduce them to destitution and force them into nursing homes. Either way, the state of California is going to pick up the tab."
