Fogarty bill would provide funds for senior home care

PROVIDENCE -- It doesn’t make sense, Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty insists, for Rhode Island to continually increase funding for more expensive nursing home care, while neglecting home care and other options that would be more comfortable for seniors and their families while costing less.

"For those people who have loved ones trying to get on a respite care program or people on waiting lists for assisted-living and have no other choice but to go into a nursing home, for them and their families there is a crisis looming," Fogarty said during a Monday morning news conference at the Statehouse

"As the population ages and more people demand some kind of services," he said, "if the only choices we have for them are programs that are frozen so they can’t stay in the communities or nursing homes, they are going to go into the more costly option. So it’s not only bad for them, it is going to create a financial crisis for the state that we have to deal with."

That, Fogarty said, was the impetus for him to introduce the "Real Choices for Rhode Island" plan, legislation he says would take $3.5 million of the long-term care spending budgeted for 2006 and put it in a pool to be used for home care and community care options such as respite care programs, assisted-living and adult day care service. That way, he said, the plan can be implemented without spending additional money.

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