AGING & DISABILITY SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
Project 2020
Project 2020: Building on the Promise of Home and Community-Based Services
A new national long-term care strategy focuses on generating savings in Medicaid and Medicare at the federal and state levels while enabling older adults and individuals with disabilities to get the support they need to successfully age where they want to – in their own home and community.This initiative is called Project 2020. The goal is to provide the resources to implement consumer-centered and cost-effective long-term care strategies authorized under the Older Americans Act. This page will provide the latest information about Project 2020 including supports to help empower individuals.
07-09-2009
A message from Kathy Leitch, Assistant Secretary, Washington State Aging and Disability Services Administration.
For years, those of us who work in the field of senior services have been warning about the influx of aging Boomers that will increase the demand for long-term care services. Well, the age wave has arrived, both in our state and the nation.
Currently in our state, there are about 1.8 million people between the ages of 45-64. Nationally, almost one in six Americans will be age 65 or older by 2020 and the size of the age 85-plus population will have doubled.
Washington State’s Aging and Disability Services Administration is seeing the following combination of factors: the aging Boomer phenomenon; the growing number of people age 85 and older; the increase of younger adults with disabilities; and individuals with developmental disabilities who are living longer while their family caregiver is growing older. It’s clear that our current national long-term care strategy will leave states and the federal government with a bill they cannot afford. What can we do about it? Right now, as Congress negotiates a health care plan, we have the opportunity to fix the problem.
Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has introduced legislation, S. 1257 “Project 2020: Building on the Promise of Home and Community Based Services Act of 2009”. The House companion bill is H.R. 2852. This legislation is a bi-partisan national long-term care plan that will change the way the nation has spent public dollars on our aging population. With passage of this legislation, we will, finally, focus on providing consumer-centered information that will help people take care of themselves, cost-effective and proven health and wellness programs, and community supports to keep people out of nursing homes except as a last resort. Most importantly, people will not be forced to wait until their health has deteriorated and they have spent down to the poverty level in order to be eligible for support.
Not only is this what consumers want but it saves taxpayers money. The proof is right here in our state. We started in the mid-1990’s to shift our dollars in helping senior citizens and adults with disabilities stay in their own home or a community-based setting. Over that time we have saved millions in federal and state dollars because the cost of providing care for people at home is about one-third of the cost of care in a nursing home.
We have the opportunity to weigh-in with Congress now. Please contact your member of Congress. Visit the Web sites of the National Association of State Units on Aging www.nasua.org and the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging www.n4a.org for more information. Let’s change the outdated way we look at long-term care. It’s not about the “end of life” setting – it’s about the way we want to live as we age.
Kathy Leitch is Washington Department of Social and Health Services Assistant Secretary for the Aging and Disability Services Administration.
