Myths

Facts

Serving people at home with waiver services does not save Medicaid money.

States with long established home and community based waiver programs demonstrate that these programs help control long term care expenditures and allow states to serve more people.

§         Waiver programs in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington saved each state between 11% and 17% of its annual long term care budget in the years studied.[1] 

§         In a 1994 study of waiver programs in Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, the U.S. General Accounting Office found that home and community based services have helped control growth in overall long term care expenditures.[2]

Home and Community Based Service is an untested idea.

In February 2005, Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt described the financial benefits of home and community based services:

“Providing the care that lets people live at home if they want is less expensive than providing nursing home care.  It frees up resources that can help other people. And obviously, many people are happier living at home.” (Emphasis added).[3]

Comparing information from the similar sized states of Vermont and New Hampshire, Leavitt noted Vermont spends less than half as much per elderly person on Medicaid as New Hampshire, freeing money to serve more people.[4]

Vermont

New Hampshire

Highly developed home and community based health care system

Heavy reliance on institutional care

Serves 85% of its elderly Medicaid population in their own homes

Only 50% of seniors on Medicaid can access care in their home