As lawmakers develop the fiscal 2022–23 state budget, AARP Michigan is urging them to shift the balance of long-term care funding toward home- and community-based services, with less emphasis on nursing homes and other institutional settings.
“Michiganders age 65 and older, with pre-existing conditions, or in a nursing home setting should get the COVID-19 booster,” according to infectious disease expert Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, who spoke with participants during an AARP Michigan telephone town hall today.
AARP supports increased spending for home and community based services (HCBS), dementia awareness, telemedicine parity and a wage increase for direct care workers. The organization has strongly supported these advances, and in some cases, for several years.
COVID cases in nursing homes are concentrated among the unvaccinated: nationally, those residents were three times as likely to contract COVID-19 last month compared to residents who are fully vaccinated.
Top elected officials, an audience of 340, and health and wealth experts took on a number of policy issues in a lively and substantive virtual event led by AARP Michigan.