In nursing homes, impoverished live final days on pennies [View all]
PHILADELPHIA (AP) New pants to replace Alex Moriseys tattered khakis will have to wait. Theres no cash left for sugar-free cookies either. Even at the months start, the budget is so bare that Fixodent is a luxury. Now, halfway through it, things are so tight that even a Diet Pepsi is a stretch.
How many years do I have left? asks 82-year-old Morisey, who lives in a Philadelphia nursing home. I want to live those as well as I can. But to some degree, you lose your dignity.
Across the U.S., hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents are locked in a wretched bind: Driven into poverty, forced to hand over all income and left to live on a stipend as low as $30 a month.
In a long-term care system that subjects some of societys frailest to daily indignities, Medicaids personal needs allowance, as the stipend is called, is among the most ubiquitous, yet least known.
https://apnews.com/article/nursing-home-medicaid-personal-needs-allowance-poverty-2e0a2d90d7d63d4b476397a50a9cddff