On Tuesday, Dr. Oz announced another punitive cut to Medicaid funding for California. He said that they are deferring another $1.2 billion that was meant to pay people for the personal care work they provide to friends or family members.
Oz falsely claimed that people are getting paid a lot of money to carry their mom’s groceries up the stairs. Personal care workers do a lot more than that. It can include things like bathing the person, helping the person on and off the toilet, grooming, and feeding the person. Without these services, many of these people would end up in institutions like nursing homes, which are exponentially more expensive. The reason that people get paid to do these services is so that they can stay home to help their loved one, instead of putting them in an institution as they go to an out-of-the-home job.
Oz’s excuse is supposedly that the growth of the program in California is much higher than in other states, and it’s impossible for the geniuses of the administration to understand. It’s not clear what is so difficult to understand that California has more people than any other state and more elderly and disabled people than any other state.
Something tells me that they are not going to be willing to pay the higher costs of putting these vulnerable citizens into nursing homes and other care facilities. Because those tax cuts for the wealthy have to be covered by someone. At least not until a court orders them to, since civil rights law requires people to get these services in the least restrictive setting.
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