Michigan Campaign For Quality Care

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Campaign Chairperson Bill Mania Gives Testimony at the Senate Appropriations Hearing on April 19, 2007.

Good Afternoon. My Name is William Mania, and I am the statewide chair for Michigan Campaign for Quality Care, a member of Gov. Granholm's Long Term Care Commission, and a volunteer ombudsman for Citizens for Better Care. Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today.

I am here to talk about the benefits and importance of the MI Choice program. I am on the Medicaid Waiver and by not being in a nursing home, I am saving the state of Michigan over $16,000 per year. My quality of life has increased for the better. I can choose to do whatever I want. Nursing homes may complain that the MI Choice program is taking money away from them, but it is not. In order to keep their beds filled, they are going to have to offer a more home-like environment and offer their residents more control over their own care and their lives than is currently normal in a nursing home.

After a spinal cord injury in 1999, I was in a nursing home for over 6 years. Although it is important to continue the Medicaid funding to nursing homes to preserve the quality of care, I want to encourage you to pass the full increase to the MI Choice Program. There are over 4,000 people on waiting lists around the state to receive home and community-based services. It is to all of our benefit to pass this increase. People live longer when they are out of a nursing home and can get the services they need in their own home. Also, the taxpayers' funds are better utilized. During the 5 years I was the resident council president at the last nursing home where I lived, I heard seniors say many times that they had homes to go back to, but no one to help them stay in their homes. With the help they will get from the MI Choice program they will be healthier and happier staying in their own homes.

When I lived in the nursing home, I was legally responsible for myself the entire time. However, the staff at the nursing home required me to sign in and out, and if I forgot, they yelled at me. When I went to the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform's annual meeting in October, 2005, I got questioned about the meeting's content when I returned, and whether it was supportive of nursing homes or not. That was really none of their business. Since I have lived in an independent assisted living facility, nobody questions my choices of groups I want to support or meetings I want to attend. The MI Choice program respects my independence.

The staff at the assisted living come in and ask me if I want to do something, rather than telling me it's time to do something. I have more privacy with my own apartment, and I can come and go as I please. I can make my own decision about if I need to be sent to the hospital or not. My rights are respected and I am treated like an adult, but when I lived in the nursing home I was treated like an adolescent, at best. Often, other residents were treated like little children.

I hope you will choose to fully fund the proposed increase in MI Choice funding.

Thank you very much.

William Mania