Older adults and people with disabilities want to and should be able to remain at home with their families and in their communities and receive the help they need to live lives of dignity. Instead of supporting states to strengthen aging and disability care programs, the Trump administration announced yesterday that it is withholding an unprecedented $1.3 billion in Medicaid funding from California, including funding for in-home supportive services (IHSS) the state already delivered.
This action is part of a pattern of attacks on older adults, people with disabilities, and their families across the country who rely on Medicaid to live safely in their homes instead of institutions. It’s also part of a larger aim to redistribute resources from the bottom to the top.
The administration’s latest cut, like the Medicaid cuts enacted through H.R.1, will take away services that people need to remain at home and in their communities, while forcing family caregivers to choose between their own financial security and providing care for loved ones.
While ensuring Medicaid funding is going towards care is critical to sustaining the program, the federal government should not punish older adults and families by cutting the vital services they depend on to meet their basic needs.
Withholding this level of Medicaid funding from California or any state means older adults, people with disabilities, and their families will suffer. And this is all while billionaires and corporations get richer from the tax cuts financed by stripping health care from low-income older adults and families.
