As Supervisor of Senior Programs at the Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department, I know first hand the consequences state budget cuts will have on the health and safety of our senior citizens. Current funding levels already make finding needed services so that a senior can remain in their home challenging. If the state budget is cut as anticipated, many seniors will loose their homemaker services which they depend so much on to fix a meal, run errands, or provide the services that keep them at home. Adult Day Services which provides socialization, as well as care and supervision, will no longer be an option. Emergency Home Response Units (example-Lifeline), covered by the state program, will be pulled from over half of the homes. For those few seniors who will still qualify for some in home assistance, their services will be cut in half.
Other programs slated for reduction include Circuit Breaker grants which provide property tax relief, as well as the Illinois Cares Rx pharmaceutical assistance program. Currently there are 1,333 older or disabled enrollees from Iroquois county and 509 Ford county residents receiving this pharmaceutical assistance who likely could not otherwise afford their medication. This could likely result in increase ER visits, hospitalizations and admissions to skilled nursing facilities at a much greater cost to the State’s Medicaid Program.
My letter is to alert the citizens of Ford and Iroquois counties of budget cuts that would drastically impact the services to our most vulnerable population, our seniors and disabled adults.
In addition, according to Mike O’Donnell, Executive Director of the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging, with cuts of 50 percent to human services proposed in the state budget, seniors would not receive services that would allow them to live at home, home delivered meals would be reduced by $3.6 million, 270,000 older Illinoisans would no longer receive pharmaceutical assistance, or enjoy property tax relief, and 65,000 residents in long-term care would no longer have anyone advocating for them.
The programs currently in place for older adults within our community and throughout Illinois, have SAVED Illinois money. Cutting these programs, will only force families to utilize services that are even more costly and do not allow seniors to remain independent in their own homes. As one provider put it, “Without them, we better start building new nursing homes.”
Please think about your own family and know that current services available may not be there when it is time for your family to use them. Contact your representatives and demand that these programs be protected in the budget. Let them know that you are willing to support a tax increase if it means protecting our senior citizens in their “golden years” of life.
Sincerely,
LuAnn Armantrout
Supervisor- Senior Programs
Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department
