Last week, the Administration released a proposed budget for consideration by the legislature. While we are still analyzing the documents, the proposed budget does not appear to include a Medicaid increase for home health services or the Choices for Care long term care waiver program.
Over the coming months, we will advocate strongly in the State House for the final version of the budget to invest in these programs that serve some of Vermont’s most vulnerable citizens. We successfully advocated for a 2 percent increase to the programs in each of the last two legislative sessions. These modest increases were not enough, however, to offset the effects of a decade during which these programs saw no rate increases, especially since over the same period, federal home health payments were cut substantially.
