For more than 50 years, low-income seniors and disabled people have been able to stay in their California homes — and out of more costly nursing facilities — with help from government-paid aides. But in their latest bid to renew President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, House Republicans released a plan on May 11 that would axe about $625 billion over 10 years from Medicaid, and could threaten funding for Owens and other In-Home Supportive Services workers.
Although federal law compels states to offer certain services, such as nursing home care, they’re under no obligation to cover home-based care for low-income seniors and disabled people like Crooks, leaving the in-home services program particularly vulnerable to cuts, said Amber Christ, managing director of health advocacy for the nonprofit legal group Justice in Aging.
Further reducing these services would inevitably force more people to move into nursing homes, Christ said. “It would be an enormous setback from the progress we have made to provide care in the home and the community to support older adults and their families,” she said. “I think it will cost people’s lives.”
