Washington Update
Washington Update
• Vice President Al Gore is proposing a $30 billion, 10-year program of tax credits, Medicaid coverage, and other aid to help families who care for elderly relatives at home. Gore promoted his eldercare initiative last week in Palm Springs, CA, at the start of a three-day campaigning and fund-raising sweep up the West Coast, reported the Associated Press. At the core of his proposal, and accounting for the bulk of the overall price of $30 billion, is a $3,000-per-year tax credit for families providing long term care at home for an elderly or disabled relative, the AP reported. Gore would also create a grant program, in the amount of $2.5 billion over 10 years, for communities to provide adult day care and respite care to give stressed-out caregivers an occasional break. Gore also is proposing to create a one-stop shop for caregivers where, for example, a daughter in New York could find out how to help her mother who just broke her hip in Florida, according to the AP report. With Medicaid being the largest payer for long term care services, Gore also wants to break that federal-state program’s bias for nursing home care. He is proposing to allow states and communities to expand Medicaid coverage to home- and community-based services that would keep the elderly and disabled out of nursing homes, reported the AP.
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