by:  DeAngela McDougald

The North Central-Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging (NC-FH AAA) announced today that more at-risk seniors in it’s 18 county region will be forced to wait for in-home services, and larger numbers will likely enter  nursing homes or assisted living facilities because of a $2.1 million cut made in the state’s Senior Care Act program.

The Senior Care Act provides essential in-home serviecs for people 60 and over who are considered at-risk for entering nursing facilities.  Seniors on the program pay toward the cost of their services.

Currently, 270 Kansans over the age of 60 in the NC-FH AAA region receive SCA services and another 55 are waiting for those services.

This is the problem that at-risk seniors now face:  On Thursday, May 19th Governor Sam Brownback’s administration announced a 30 percent cut to the $7,047,848 statewide Senior Care Act budget.

“The Senior Care Act means that hundreds of senior Kansans are able to stay away from the doorways of hospitals and nursing homes, and remain healthy and in their homes – the places they want to be,” said Julie Govert Walter, NC-FH AAA Executive Director.

Walter said that the Senior Care Act is “sunshine to at-risk seniors and caregivers who need some help at home to get by.” Walter goes on to state, “I’d like to know why people in Topeka’s Statehouse decided to bankrupt grandmas and grandpas and make them wards of the state instead of changing our state’s tax policy back so Senior Care Act can keep helping older Kansans living in their homes.”

The Senior Care Act monthly cost statewide is about four percent of the cost of care in a Medicaid nursing facility.  The average cost is about $200 a  month, which makes taxpayers happy because it costs less [than paying for a nursing facility or hospitals].  Taxpayers will pay $4000 a month for their care in a nursing facility through Medicaid/KanCare.