To the Editor:
This week, the Ohio Senate and the following Ohio House-Senate Conference Committee can yet spare older Ohioans from the loss of as many as a million home-delivered meals (known to many as ‘Meals-on-Wheels’) or two million miles of essential senior van transportation to doctor appointments, visiting a spouse in a nursing home, etc - if they choose to...
In the $54 billion Amended Substitute House Bill 1 budget bill for Ohio, the House version shows a nearly $2 million or 20 percent cut each year for the State Community Services Block Grant (SCSBG) line GRF #490-411 over the 2008 amount. Losing that amount of funding would force service agencies to cut out about one million nutritionally balanced meals or park the senior vans instead of driving two million miles to help homebound senior citizens remain in their own homes.
On June 2, the Senate Finance committee added back about $615,000 each year in State funds to prevent the annual loss of and additional $2.2 million in federal matching funds. While greatly appreciated by Area Agencies on Aging, senior centers and community action agencies, that still leaves us a million state dollars short for each year. That increase could disappear at conference.
Over 85 percent of older Ohioans do not qualify for Medicaid, Medicaid nursing home placement or Home & Community-Based Services, such as AAA9’s PASSPORT program. They do need vital community services such as meals, transportation and in-home care services to prevent or delay further decline. In AAA9’s nine East Central Ohio counties, we’ll lose $90-100,000 each year.
The Senior Community Services Block Grant (SCSBG) dollars do fund these services with only age as the basic eligibility criteria; availability, though, can be a different question. The SCSBG gives anyone over age 60 at least a chance at getting some baseline help to remain in the community, instead of having to prematurely go into a far more costly nursing home at taxpayer expense.
Since 2001, SCSBG has been cut from about $14 million to just over $8 million, at a time when the number and needs of older Ohioans are increasing daily. Some estimates say that over 5,000 needy older consumers who could use these services are turned away or under-served already. That number is certain to increase unless SCSBG is restored to the previous biennium levels.
I ask the entire community to join me in encouraging all of our State Representatives and State Senators to call for and support increasing the State Community Services Block Grant (SCSBG) line GRF #490-411 to $10 million for each of the next two years. For perspective, this small increase over the House amount equals about 0.00006 percent of the State Budget. Restoring SCSBG will help maintain current levels of basic assistance that support independence and allow for lower cost of care at taxpayer expense, over time, through guidance, choice & prevention.
Alan L. Burnett, AAA9 Executive Director/CEO
Area Agency on Aging - Region 9, Byesville/Cambridge OH
Website: http://www.aaa9.org ® E-mail: aaa9@aaa9.org
Funded in part by the Ohio Department of Aging
An Equal Opportunity Employer
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