Jerry Brown vetoes bill to help elderly, disabled [View All]

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Sacramento -- Time is running out for the tens of thousands of frail, elderly and disabled Californians who currently depend on centers around the state for medical care and other support, after Gov. Jerry Brown refused to support a smaller incarnation of the decades-old program.

Brown vetoed a bill Monday that would have offered an alternative to Adult Day Health Care, which was eliminated under the budget signed last month. Now, funding for the approximately 300 existing centers that offer 37,000 adults medical care, physical therapy, exercise, counseling, socialization and other support will be cut off on Dec. 1.

"Providers, patients and families are scared and angry, and they feel abandoned and marginalized," said Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Association for Adult Day Services, who noted that the community-based model that defines Adult Day Health Care is exactly what the federal health care reform envisions.

The measure Brown vetoed would have replaced the $169 million Adult Day Health Care program with an $85 million alternative that served only the neediest patients. The bill was authored by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, D-Woodland Hills (Los Angeles County).

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/26/BAF01KE1VF.DTL