The State House in Augusta, ME

Maine health care advocates are rallying in support of LD-400, a bill that would increase funding for home-based services and call on government agencies to develop a unified budget for the delivery of long-term care to elders and disabled adults (Bangor Daily News, March 3).

On March 3, advocates gathered in the state Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee room in Augusta to voice their support for the bill and for measures in general that would improve the state’s care for its elders.

Despite Maine’s status as the “grayest state” with the most rapidly aging population, in recent years it has actually cut funding for elder care programs (Kennebec Journal, March 4).

Presently 75 percent of the state’s spending on elder care goes to long-term facilities while 25 percent goes to at-home care, a figure the bill’s supporters would like to change.

The bill’s primary sponsor is Sen. Margaret Craven, D-Lewiston, who said the economic crisis and Maine’s rapidly aging population mean the state ought to invest in “helping people stay where they want to be — in their homes” (Bangor Daily News).

The state’s nursing home industry opposes the bill on economic grounds, saying its price tag — $2 million over two years — could cause troubles.

Rick Erb, president of the Maine Health Care Association, which represents over 200 nursing homes, spoke against the bill at the March 3 meeting, claiming it would pit nursing homes and home-based care providers against each other.

“As advocates for quality long-term care services for Maine’s elderly citizens, we do not think it is realistic to take from one part of the continuum to fund another,” he said. “The aging demographics tell a different story — we need to increase funding for all levels of long-term care” (Kennebec Journal).

Roy Gedat, National Advocacy Director for the Direct Care Alliance (DCA) and former Executive Director of Maine’s direct care worker association, told PHI that even though Maine’s extensive home-based care program is innovative compared to other states, LD-400 will provide additional necessary funding to get people off the long waiting list for home care — almost a thousand at present, according to Brenda Gallant, the state’s long-term care ombudsman – and allow them to stay in their homes.

He also said part of the bill will go to providing better pay and benefits for Maine’s direct-care workforce, a goal that DCA has long advocated. “I think it’s about time the state Department of Health and Human Services recognizes that they are paying for this home care system on the backs of low- wage home care workers,” Gedat said.

The Bangor Daily News reported on March 5 that state lawmakers had sidelined the bill while it is revised. Changes “could include provisions to support the development of a direct-care work force for home-based services and protections for current residents of nursing homes who might be found ineligible if admission criteria are changed.”