ADAPT Announces 10 Worst States for Community Services

10/10/2002

From: Bob Kafka, 512-431-4085 Marsha Katz, 406-544-9504 email: adapt@adapt.org http://www.adapt.org NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 10 -- If you want to receive long term care services in your own home in your own community, think twice about living in Louisiana, says ADAPT, the nation's largest grassroots disability rights group. Louisiana topped ADAPT's list of the "Ten Worst States" for Community Services, having made its way to the top position from its number 3 ranking five years ago, in 1998. ADAPT's findings were gathered from official Medicaid statistics which the states report to the federal government, along with an early September survey of advocates across the nation. Louisiana's abysmal showing in the ADAPT list has since been echoed by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) in their September 26 report which stated that 93 cents of every Medicaid dollar spent on long term care in Louisiana went to nursing homes, despite the growing demand for home and community-based services. "People wonder why states like Louisiana spend so much money on nursing homes, rather than on the less costly community-based services that every poll and research study says Americans want," said Bob Kafka, National ADAPT Organizer. Well, the answer is simple. Congress keeps accepting contributions from the wealthy nursing home lobby, and keeps voting in a way that perpetuates the nursing home industry being a long-term care monopoly. A monopoly that will continue to be subsidized by our tax dollars until Congress votes to reform Medicaid policy to remove the institutional bias." Current Medicaid policy ties long term care dollars to institutional settings, like nursing homes and state institutions for persons with developmental disabilities. ADAPT wants legislation passed which would change Medicaid policy to tie dollars to people, giving individuals a real choice to receive long term care services in their own homes in the community, rather than be forced into an institutional setting. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) are co-sponsoring that legislation, the Medicaid Community-based Attendant Services and Supports Act (MiCASSA) in the U.S. Senate (SB1298), while Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Rep. Paul Shimkus (R-Ill.) have introduced a companion bill (HR 3612) in the U.S. House of Representatives. "Many of us in Louisiana are utterly embarrassed by being at the top of this list," said Lois Simpson, Executive Director of the Advocacy Center. "And ADAPT's announcement comes right when the nursing home lobby is meeting here in New Orleans, looking for even more ways to capture federal dollars and preserve their government subsidized monopoly, while our friends and relatives remain incarcerated in institutional settings. Clearly, we need MiCASSA now to give people real choice and to put a stop to this corporate welfare for the nursing home industry." ADAPT "OUR HOMES NOT NURSING HOMES" 2002/2003 TEN WORST STATES SURVEY Information from the following three sources was used to rank the states on their provision of community services for people with disabilities and older Americans: 1.The MEDSTAT Group Inc. data on Medicaid long term care expenditures in Federal Fiscal Year 2001(May 2002); 2. The State of the States in Developmental Disabilities: 2002 Study Summary (June 2002); 3. Advocate's Assessment of the States Survey (September 2002) The analysis weighed various factors based on the published data, along with how people with disabilities, old and young, perceived their states were providing long-term care services. The rankings below represent ADAPT's best analysis of the above information: Ten Worst Ranking 1. Louisiana (No. 3 in 1998) 2. Mississippi (No. 2 in 1998) 3. Washington, DC (No. 11 in 1998) 4. Illinois (No. 6 in 1998) 5. Indiana (No. 7 in 1998) 6. Tennessee (No. 1 in 1998) 7. Nevada (not ranked in 1998) 8. New Jersey (not ranked in 1998) 9. Ohio (No. 9 in 1998) 10. Georgia (No. 5 in 1998) The second ten worst states were: Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Kentucky, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Arkansas and Missouri.