Medicare

Like many other industries, Home Care faces tough times. Both at the federal level and at the state, Home Care and Home Health are being targeted for budget cuts. These cuts are unwise for many reasons but are especially short-sighted because the ramification costs are enormous. According to a report published in 2007 by a Medicaid Committee headed up by Senator Charlie Shields, the cost to the state of Missouri for a nursing home bed is 6 times the cost for that same person enrolled in home health care. So by driving people out of home care and into nursing homes, the state will incur a six fold cost increase. This does not take into consideration the myriad benefits of home health care over that of institutional care. Nor does it factor in the wishes of the elderly to remain in their homes. I will writing about this topic more in the months to come as we follow the state and federal legislation and it’s affect on the clients of Cooperative Home Care here in St. Louis and the rest of the seniors in the state of Missouri.

Please contact your state senators and representatives and express your opinion on the value of home care. It is a republican value, a democratic value, an American value. Home Health Care, like the type we here at Cooperative Home Care provide, is a value that cuts accross all party lines and it is a real cost value to the taxpayers of Missouri.

Mitch Waks

CEO Cooperative Home Care

St. Louis, Missouri