Legislators look for options beyond government paid nursing home care

Over half of the 300-thousand Iowans who get government-paid health care through the Medicaid program are in a nursing home. Representative Danny Carroll, a republican from Grinnell, says it’s time to find another way to care for the elderly and disabled. Carroll says this year the state of Iowa will pay for about five million days of nursing home care. And that care’s pricey — sometimes as much as 60-thousand dollars a year per patient. Carroll says lawmakers want to find more ways to help the elderly stay in their homes as long as possible and encourage more group home care for the disabled. He concedes that’s hard in rural Iowa where there are fewer residents to support such alternatives and many already-existing nursing homes with vacant beds.