In-Home Caregivers Get Reprieve

The Schwarzenegger administration on Thursday abruptly abandoned its plan to scrap services provided to the state’s homebound disabled children and adults such as meal preparation and housekeeping.

The announcement came at a legislative hearing called to consider the $485 million in proposed cuts. Instead, officials said they would ask the federal government to take over financing the program, and said they had received initial encouragement from the Bush administration.

“I’m absolutely thrilled. I am so relieved,” said Chris Walters of Redwood City after the surprise action. She was among hundreds of recipients, many of them in wheelchairs, as well as families, paid care providers and advocates who packed a hearing room.

The announcement marked the second time in five months that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has backed off a controversial budget cut aimed at the disabled. At the height of a statewide outcry in December, the new governor reversed himself and agreed to retain a series of services for the developmentally disabled.

For the developmentally disabled, the cuts would have established waiting lists for enrollment in the program and abolished such services as equestrian and musical therapy, arts and crafts, and respite care for parents who care for their children at home.

But recent criticism of his proposed abolition of the state-financed portion of the “in-home support services” program for low-income blind, disabled and elderly Californians had been equally intense. Opponents held protest marches and rallies at the Capitol.

But much of their steam cooled when administration officials disclosed the change of course at the outset of the hearing, which had been called to examine the potential adverse effects of the budget cuts originally proposed by Schwarzenegger.

Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata), the Senate’s chief budget writer, welcomed the news as offering “significant new hope,” but expressed concern that the tentative deal might fall apart. If this occurred, he said, he feared the governor might return to his original plan to dump the services.

He said it was good that the governor had abandoned the proposal because elimination of nonmedical personal services would be even costlier if recipients were forced into Medi-Cal, the state’s healthcare program for the needy, and other more expensive programs. He noted that the plan faced serious doubts in the Democratic-controlled Legislature from the start.

At issue are the state-financed services to aged, blind and disabled Californians who remain at home under the care of family members or paid providers. The caregivers, serving about 75,000 people, receive a maximum $10.10 an hour to perform such tasks as grocery shopping, running errands and preparing meals. The estimated cost next year is $485 million.

Untouched by the governor’s proposed cuts would be a similar program that also provides services for low-income disabled Californians. It is financed jointly by the state and federal government and serves about 284,000 individuals, most of whom receive Medi-Cal or Social Security supplemental income benefits.

Walters, who was pleased by Thursday’s announcement, cares full time for her 16-year-old son Derek. He was born with multiple severe disabilities, is immobile, cannot speak or dress, feed or bathe himself, and requires her attention around the clock, even when he sleeps, she said.

Walters said she receives a stipend from the state for caring for him at home instead of placing him in a nursing home at a much higher cost to taxpayers.

Even though she was pleased with the news, Walters criticized Schwarzenegger for proposing the cuts in the first place.