The Senate Committee on Health heard a bill on April 23 that would repeal the current financial eligibility requirement for services for families caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, aims to remove the income cap, currently set at $48,000, so more individuals with Alzheimer’s are eligible for assistance from local agencies.
The budget cap for the government agency services program, established in 1987, has not been adjusted for inflation, according to Cabral-Guevara.
“The income cap in itself has become a barrier for the service providers and prevents the utilization of the full funds,” Cabral-Guevara said.
Approximately 10% of the funds are not currently spent but could be utilized by families above the income cap. If the state continues to not spend all the funds, Wisconsin could lose access to national family caregiver programs, which Cabral-Guevara described as crucial in helping patients with the disease.
“We do not want to lose this program. This is supporting our individuals that have Alzheimer's, but even more so, this is supporting the caregivers, the people that are at home working with these individuals and taking care of them,” Cabral-Guevara said. “If we’re going to put the funds and not utilize them all, that doesn’t make much sense.”
Alzheimer’s Association representative Allison Cramer also voiced support for the bill, emphasizing the urgent need for increased support for not only a growing group of affected individuals battling Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, but also a large group of caretakers who are left unpaid in supporting the afflicted individuals.
“[There are] 205,000 caregivers across the state of Wisconsin who provide an estimated 297 million hours of unpaid care,” Cramer said, describing the bill as a “practical solution to align our state policy with those federal regulations, expanding support to more families in need and also reducing our long term costs as a state in institutional placements.”
Cramer said it would be “wonderful” to see this bill move forward, as Wisconsin continues to be a “leader in the dementia care space.”
Janet Zander, the advocacy and public policy coordinator of the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, supports the bill, noting the stress caregivers face.
Zander said the average caregiver spends approximately $7,000 per year on costs associated with caring for individuals with disabilities. Additionally, caregivers taking care of disabled people make upwards of $12,000 per year.
“Many of these counties had nowhere to go to get non-federal, non-income eligibility funds” [for caretakers and disabled persons],” Zander said. “The last thing we want to do is not utilize what this legislature and Congress have given us with the bill.”
The estimated fiscal budget for this bill was announced as $3.05 million on Thursday, according to an official DHS statement.
