John Boyd wants to live in the community, not a nursng home.The AARP Bulletin reports in its June issue on a federal lawsuit AARP filed in January on behalf of John Boyd and five other plaintiffs, arguing that Florida violates federal law by forcing some adults with disabilities to live in nursing homes.
“Nursing homes are jails without the bars,” says Boyd. “People make decisions for me and about me without my best interests in mind. I should make my own decisions.”
The Bulletin explains:
Medicaid allows nursing home residents only $35 a month in spending money, so they can’t afford transportation, phones or food purchases, the suit says. Sometimes they face curfews. This “perpetuates the segregation of persons with disabilities,” the lawsuit argues.
Nursing home care in Florida is also expensive for taxpayers—roughly $65,000 a year per person versus an average of $39,000 a year for assisted living or community-based care, according to Bruce Vignery, senior AARP Foundation attorney and one of the lawyers on the case.
While Vermont, Oregon, Washington and several other states have moved many disabled and older Medicaid recipients from nursing homes, Florida has not,
Vignery says. In 2006, 87 percent of Florida’s Medicaid long-term care funding
went to nursing facilities, while only 13 percent went to community-based services; the national average is closer to a 70-30 split.“Florida has placed a restriction on your ability to live where you want and do what you want,” Vignery says. “That’s wrong. People should have a meaningful choice.”
