LILBURN, Ga. — Matthew Southern, 35, who has intellectual and developmental disabilities, is able to stay out of an institution because health aides paid through a Medicaid program assist him and his roommate with ordinary tasks.
But amid a worker shortage worsened by the pandemic, Southern’s father, Dan, has had to step in to fill in gaps in his son’s care by volunteering at their home 45 minutes away from his northwestern Atlanta suburb. He blames the low pay across the industry.
“No one wants to work for $12 an hour,” Dan Southern said. “People can work at Burger King and make more money.”
Last year brought an injection of hope: The federal government, through the American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in March 2021, increased funding with a 10-percentage point match that could amount to some $25 billion in federal money for Medicaid home and community-based services, which have long faced staffing crunches. That massive infusion of cash could be used by states to buttress wages, move people off waiting lists for disability services, train more workers, or expand covered services for vulnerable elderly and disabled people, helping to keep them out of nursing homes.
But almost a year later, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington were among 19 states as of Feb. 17 yet to receive the “conditional approval” needed from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to fully access the money.