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Cuts would 'harm seniors,' Sims says

February 15, 2008|HERB BROCK

Gov. Steve Beshear's proposed budget for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services contains "unacceptable cuts that would harm seniors and their families," the executive director of the Danville-Boyle County Senior Citizens Center told a legislative panel Thursday in Frankfort.

The proposed cuts are "very serious" because current funding levels do not meet the needs of center clients now, and cuts would only make it more difficult to provide services, Jackie Sims said in a prepared statement she read to the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee.

"Due to the influx of baby boomers, how will we serve these people and meet their needs when there now are waiting lists for senior citizens centers?" Sims asked, adding that nearly 15,000 seniors across the state are waiting for home care services alone.

Sims argued that full funding for senior citizens centers and other programs whose services enable the elderly to keep living independently saves the state a lot of money.

"Funding senior services is a good use of taxpayers' money compared to the cost of long-term care," she said. "If state lawmakers think it would be foolhardy to spend more money on human services, then consider that the annual cost of long-term care under Kentucky Medicaid is $34,353 per person per year."

Community-based programs could yield savings

In contrast, funding community-based programs for seniors "could save taxpayers overall more than $50,000 per person per year," Sims said.

Sims said she also is concerned about reports that the Department for Aging and Independent Living, the agency in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services that provides funding for the state's senior citizen centers, will be eliminated.

In a recent interview, Sims said that she has had a difficult time scraping together the funds to provide services to a growing number of clients. She said if it weren't for the contributions the center receives from Danville and Boyle County governments and Heart of Kentucky United Way, the local center would not be able to meet the needs of its clients.

For example, she said that last fiscal year the center received $117,000 from the state for its home care program but had to add $44,000 in local money in order to serve all of that program's clients.

The House A and R Committee heard testimony Thursday from several other people who either represented programs that receive funding from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services or who benefit from those programs. Most of the testimony came from people concerned about proposed cuts to health services programs.

Beshear has proposed a budget of $1.877 billion for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services for 2009, a cut of a little more than 1 percent. It includes a $166.4 million increase for Medicaid, meaning many programs and services face larger cuts.

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