Porkers of the Week: Ohio Senate

From Eye on the Statehouse by Eye on the Statehouse

This week’s Porkers are members of the Ohio Senate for their $40 million handout to Ohio’s powerful nursing home industry. As a result of their successful lobbying efforts, senators allocated scarce state resources to these costly institutional care providers.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

With passage of the Ohio Senate’s version of the budget on Wednesday, the nursing home industry hit its mark. The Senate matched the $40 million (worth $100 million with the federal money) that the Ohio House inserted into Strickland’s budget last month.

There are better and more cost effective options.

From a taxpayer’s perspective, home and community-based care is cheaper than institutional care (nursing homes) for most long-term care needs. Many individuals would also prefer to be taken care of in a home or community setting rather than in an institution. Thus, it doesn’t make sense to increase money for expensive nursing home care when it is possible that a more cost-effective (and more patient-friendly) alternative exists.

Just look at the numbers: the state has a program called PASSPORT that covers home and community-based care. Most individuals in the program have similar levels of disability to nursing home residents. It costs taxpayers, on average, $164 per day for an individual in nursing home care. For an individual in PASSPORT, it costs taxpayers around $48 a day.

Long-term care needs to be provided by the state based on a determination of what is appropriate for an individual’s needs as well as what is cost-effective for taxpayers.

Senators, like their colleagues in the Ohio House, knew these facts and yet still opted to increase nursing home funding at the expense of other suitable health care options. As a result, members of the Ohio Senate are the Porkers of the Week.