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Committee advances $200,000 grant bill to expand volunteer elder-care services
Summary
Senate Bill 21-38 would add $200,000 for programs that support volunteer-run services helping elderly residents stay in their homes; sponsors framed the proposal as an efficiency to avoid more costly institutional care.
Representative Matt Ruby presented Senate Bill 21-38, a bill that would appropriate $200,000 to expand services that help keep elderly residents in their homes. “Senate Bill 21 38 is a grant for $200,000, with $100,000 of it going to existing organizations providing care to elderly individuals in rural areas of the state, and then $100,000 that would be designated to set up some of these services,” Ruby said.
Ruby and several committee members described the lead nonprofit, Community of Care, which coordinates hundreds of volunteers to provide services such as paperwork assistance, Medicare and drug-plan enrollment, preventive health counseling, exercise programs and referrals. Ruby said Community of Care coordinates roughly 300 volunteers and currently receives funding in the aging services budget; the bill would enhance that budget to expand the footprint into additional rural areas.
Committee members asked whether the appropriation would create a permanent program in the Human Services budget. Ruby said the program currently receives aging-services funding and that, if widely adopted, the appropriation could be folded into DHS aging services in future budget cycles.
Several members noted the program’s potential cost-efficiency compared with institutional care and discussed demographic projections: committee members cited a forecasted 9.2% increase in the elderly population over the next 10 years, underscoring demand for in-home supports.
The committee voted to give the bill a due-pass recommendation. Representative Rios will carry the bill to the floor.
