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NCAOA, in its
continuous effort to support independence and quality of life for
North Carolina’s older adults, urges the
General Assembly to support the following:
NCAOA
2007 Legislative Agenda
Money is tight, there are hard
choices to make…the local agencies providing services and
opportunities for these adults support the following four
Legislative priorities:
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Support
legislation to increase Home and Community Care Block Grant
Funding
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Increase
Senior Center General Purpose Funds
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Support
Legislation for wrap-around for Medicare Part D
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Appropriate
funds to allow increases in the number of participants in CAP-DA
(Community Alternatives Program for Disabled Adults)
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Support
legislation to increase Home and Community Care Block Grant
Funding
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Home and community-based services help
impaired older adults stay in their homes. Key
services include home-delivered meals, adult day care/day
health care, in-home aide services, transportation, and
respite care for family caregivers. Currently, there
are long waiting lists for these services statewide.
Increased funding for the Home and Community Care Block
Grant will assist more seniors to stay in their homes and
communities. |
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Increase
Senior Center General Purpose Funds
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Senior Centers
help keep older adults physically and mentally healthy,
socially engaged, and offer seniors numerous opportunities
to contribute in their communities. General Purpose
funding is used in the operation of centers and was reduced
several years ago. The existing limited funding is
being further strained as more centers become Centers of
Merit or Centers of Excellence and the limited allocations
become even smaller when distributing among centers.
More funding is needed to help our Senior Centers operate
efficiently and effectively in serving seniors and our
communities. |
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Support
Legislation for wrap-around for Medicare Part D
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Medicare Part D
has not taken care of the problem of accessing and paying
for prescription drugs for many older and disabled North
Carolinians, causing many of these individuals to go without
needed medication. Many states have established or
continued State Prescription Drug Assistance Programs to
assist Medicare beneficiaries with costs not covered by
Medicare drug plans. NC is the only state in the
country not continuing a State Prescription Drug Assistance
Program that had helped seniors with incomes below 135% of
the federal poverty level. |
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Appropriate
funds to allow increases in the number of participants in
CAP-DA (Community Alternatives Program for Older Adults)
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At-Risk Case
Management is one of only two Medicaid programs with no
State participation in the cost, yet it is the primary case
management service available to support SA In-Home
clients. State participation in the cost of this
service is requested. At-Risk is provided to over
10,000 clients (both child and adult clients of county DSS's)
at an annual budget of $8,558,400 (FY 2006). The FFP
(federal financial participation) rate in FFY 2006 is
63.63%. Currently counties provide all of the 36.37%
match for the non-federal share. There is no state
participation in this case management program. The
requested state share is half of the non-federal share, or
18.19% of the cost; $1.556 million would be required.
Counties would provide the remaining 18.19% of the
non-federal share. Cost to the state: $1,556,000. |
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NCAOA
Legislative Priorities