Gore To Announce Program For Expanding Medicaid

By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, January 21, 1999

Bolstering his presidential campaign credentials with a powerful voting bloc, Vice President Al Gore today will propose a plan to expand Medicaid coverage to senior citizens who continue living in their own homes.

Gore is scheduled to announce the plan at a forum on long-term care in Tampa, Fla. Advisers said the $110 million, five-year initiative, which will be included in the Clinton administration's budget proposal, complements another recent proposal to give $1,000 tax credits to compensate family members providing long-term care to relatives.

Historically, the federal Medicaid program has made it easier for people to get coverage if they move into a nursing home than if they want to continue living in their own home but need support services.

Gore will propose enabling states to expand their programs for seniors to cover community-based care as well as nursing-home care without requiring a federal waiver. Such care would be available to people with incomes up to 300 percent of the Social Security Income limit.

The number of Americans aged 65 or older will double to 69.4 million by 2030 from 34.3 million now. And the number of people aged 85 years or older will grow from 4 million to 8.4 million.

Besides expanding home-based care, Gore will propose $750 million for modernizing public housing for the elderly, along with a variety of services.

The proposal would also provide competitive grants to certain groups to give seniors health care and other help needed to remain independent. In addition, $90 million would be available for 15,000 housing vouchers to allow seniors to choose where they want to live.