Policy · The states
A July brief counts at least 18 states cutting or squeezing home and community care
Caring Across Generations says federal Medicaid reductions are already showing up as state cuts to aging and disability services, from Idaho to Maryland.
Diliff, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
Direct Support News desk · · 4 min read
A July brief from Caring Across Generations says that since last year’s federal Medicaid law, at least 18 states have proposed or enacted cuts to home- and community-based services, or have otherwise put aging and disability care at risk.
The brief points to concrete moves already on the books. Idaho’s governor signed a $22 million cut to Medicaid home- and community-based services in late March. Colorado reversed planned provider rate increases and finished reductions in its Community Connector program. Maryland cut and consolidated Developmental Disabilities Administration services.
The authors tie those choices to the federal law’s effect on state budgets. They estimate state Medicaid funds falling by $679 billion and state general funds by $82 billion by 2034, and note that home- and community-based services are optional benefits states often trim first.
Read against the state stories on this desk, the pattern is the same one: a rate notice, a wage floor that barely moves, or a family told to use fewer hours.
This is a desk summary, not the original report. Read it at Caring Across Generations.