Democrats and Republicans should oppose cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services budget that will affect the elderly.

The governor proposed the cuts as a part of his supplemental budget to try and meet a $95 million budget shortfall. Filling a gap of that size will undoubtedly be a difficult challenge for the governor and legislators, but but it’s hard to justify some of what would be included in $70 million in cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services budget.

According to the Southern Maine Agency on Aging, the cuts to elderly services include:

• $700,000 reduction in homemaker services to help elders with grocery shopping, cooking, laundry and housekeeping.

• $762,000 for home-based, hands-on care, like help bathing and dressing.

• Elimination of $700,000 that supports independent living pilot projects for low-income, frail elderly in subsidized apartments.

• $400,000 from the adult day service program providing day care, meals, social programs and transportation for elders living at home.

• Elimination of funding for training, support and respite for family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s to save $214,000.

• $3.3 million reduction in payments to boarding homes for seniors by eliminating reimbursement for bed-hold days when a resident is not at the home.

The $700,000 cut to independent living for low-income, frail elderly, for example, would take away support for Larrabee Village in Westbrook, which is home to 150 tenants. It would also affect smaller homes for the elderly in Brunswick, Rockland, Mount Desert and Aroostook County.

With the $3.3 million reduction in payments to boarding homes for seniors, the state would lose $6 million in matching funds from the federal government.

Money to fill this budget gap has to come from somewhere, but it should not come from public support for some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. The need for these services will not disappear. It will simply be shifted to other places.

In some cases, the state would actually be driving people into more expensive care. Larry Gross, executive director at the Southern Maine Agency on Aging, pointed out that the average cost for home-based services is $480 a month. If people are forced to move into nursing homes because of cuts to the home services, the cost to the state is $172 a day for Medicaid reimbursements.

It doesn’t make sense to reduce support for the elderly at a time when Maine’s population is getting older. More people will be needing these services in the future, and there will be less money to support them.

The cuts, along with a long list of other cuts to the the budget of the Department of Health and Human Services, will be reviewed by the Appropriations Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee beginning Friday.

Contact your local legislators and urge them to find this money elsewhere. Maine should not balance its budget by cutting these services to the elderly.

Brendan Moran, editor