State budget adds spending for aging in place

Jim Burger

Older adults in Michigan looking to age in place were winners in the state budget passed Tuesday by lawmakers.

Some of the AARP Michigan-backed increases in spending in the state Department of Health and Human Services budget to help older adults in Michigan live independently won passage in the Legislature.

The Fiscal Year 2019 budget adds $41.4 million, including $14.7 million General Fund money, to the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). This spending increase adds 950 enrollees for a statewide enrollment of about 3,600. PACE provides integrated care options for older consumers.

 The budget also adds $2.5 million for home-delivered meals and other in-home senior services that enable seniors to remain living in their homes and communities, where surveys show they prefer to live. AARP and other groups had sought an increase of $3 million to address the remaining waitlists for these services and to meet the increased need anticipated in the coming year due to growth in the senior population.   .

“Providing assistance with ‘activities of daily living’ – help with things like shopping, laundry, and cooking meals – can be the difference that allows someone to remain in their own home, rather than go to a nursing home,” said Lisa Dedden Cooper, AARP Michigan Manager of Advocacy.

Spending bills still must be signed by Gov. Rick Snyder.