[SeniorTaskForce-News] FW: Stop Cuts to Critical Senior Services in Your District

[Rosanna McLain]

For your information.

 

Rosanna 

________________________________

From: Michael O'Donnell [mailto:MODonnell at eciaaa.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 2:06 PM
To: shanecultra53 at yahoo.com; jason at jasonbarickman.org; Keith Sommer
Cc: LuAnn Armantrout; info at fiphd.org; jgleason at lchd.us; Barbra Wylie;
Cathy Grafton; interimed at mccainc.org; Donald Deany;
volservice at sbcglobal.net; kdonovan at futuresunlimited.org; Karen Zangerle;
Kathryn Johnson; Marsha Johnson; Rosanna McLain; Sheryl Bautch; Joan
Dixon; Faith Roberts; memmons at parkland.edu; Patrick Harness; Diane
Bostic; rlipic at ilstu.edu; pmccallister at eiu.edu; t.steczo at comcast.net;
mozhouse at springnet1.com; margaretprideaux at att.net
Subject: Stop Cuts to Critical Senior Services in Your District

 

MEMO TO:      Senator Shane Cultra, (53rd Senate District)

                        State Representative Jason Barickman (105th
House District)

                        State Representative Keith Sommer (106th House
District)

 

CC:                   Members of the ECIAAA Advisory Council and Board

                        Service Providers in the Aging Network

 

FROM:             Mike O'Donnell, Executive Director, East Central
Illinois Area Agency on Aging

 

DATE:              March 9, 2011

 

RE:                   Stop Cuts to Critical Senior Services in Your
District

 

We urge Members of the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives to
"stop cuts to critical senior services."  Cutting these services will
push people into costly nursing homes, take meals off the table of
struggling seniors, reduce rides for medical appointments, eliminate
Gap-Filling services for older adults with special needs, and attempt to
balance the budget on the backs of seniors who need help paying for
their medications.  

 

The budget proposed by Governor Quinn is bad news for seniors struggling
to remain at home for as long as possible.  The proposed budget
eliminates critical pharmaceutical assistance and cuts funding for home
delivered meals and community-based services in your district.  These
services keep older persons from being forced into nursing homes and
save the state millions of dollars in Medicaid costs.  

 

This week, appropriations committees in the Illinois Senate and House
are holding hearings on spending for FY2012.  Some state lawmakers are
proposing cuts even deeper than those put forth by the Governor.
Attached you will find testimony prepared by I4A and AARP for these
hearings, opposing cuts in programs and services for Illinois Seniors.

 

The following programs are at risk in your district:

 

-          Home Delivered Meals and Community-Based Services would be
cut by as much as 20%, impacting the following agencies in your
district:

1.      Peace Meal Senior Nutrition Program - provider of congregate and
home delivered meals in 14 counties in Area 05

2.      SHOW BUS - provider of rural public transportation in DeWitt,
Ford, Iroquois, Livingston, and McLean Counties in Area 05

3.      Volunteer Services of Iroquois County - Coordinated Point of
Entry for Iroquois County

4.      Ford-Iroquois County Health Department - Coordinated Point of
Entry for Ford County and CCU for Ford and Iroquois Counties

5.      Mid Central Community Action Senior Services - Coordinated Point
of Entry for Livingston County

6.      Livingston County Health Department - Care Coordination Unit for
Livingston County

7.      Community Care Systems - Care Coordination Unit for McLean,
Clark, Cumberland, Moultrie and Shelby Counties in Area 05

8.      PATH - Providing Access to Help - Coordinated Point of Entry for
McLean and DeWitt Counties

9.      Family Service Senior Resource Center - Coordinated Point of
Entry for Champaign County

 

-          The Community Care Program - nearly half of nursing home
eligible persons seeking more cost effective home based care will be
turned away from Community Care Program starting July 1, 2011

 

-          The Circuit Breaker Program would be eliminated - a program
which has provided property tax relief for older adults and persons with
disabilities

 

-          The Illinois Cares Rx Program would be eliminated - a program
that has helped nearly 200,000 seniors pay for prescription drugs.  Low
income seniors with multiple chronic health conditions will be forced to
choose between their medications and food, resulting in higher Medicaid
enrollment, more costly hospitalizations, nursing home placements, and
deaths.

 

Attachments:

-          I4A Testimony for the Senate Appropriations I Committee
Hearing on March 8, 2011

-          I4A Testimony for the House Appropriations - Human Services
Committee on March 10, 2011

-          Tables showing the number of persons enrolled in Illinois
Cares Rx and the value of Illinois Cares Rx benefits by county in Area
05, and the 30% of enrollees who fall into the Medicare Part D do-nut
hole and the value of Illinois Cares Rx drug payments for enrollees in
the do-nut hole by county

-          An Alert about Illinois Cares Rx produced by the Make
Medicare Works Coalition in Illinois

 

 

 

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