Georgia lawmaker pushes for better senior care, expanded Medicaid for home care | Opinion

I owe everything to my mom, Linda. As a single mother living in Columbus, Georgia, she juggled two or three jobs to support my sister and me. She showed me what it meant to treat others with kindness and dignity. These lessons are the foundation of my career in public service.

I think about those lessons about kindness and dignity a lot these days, especially now as a caregiver for my mom.

My mom is one of over 180,000 Georgians living with Alzheimer’s Disease.

I’m lucky enough to have a job which gives me the flexibility and resources to prioritize her care. But that opportunity isn’t available to everyone. For every Georgian living with Alzheimer’s, I think about the families that have to work hard to string together adequate care for their loved one.

In Georgia, we don’t do enough to support families caring for aging loved ones. My wife, Ariel, and I realized this while taking care of my mom and raising our two young children at the same time. We are part of what people call the “sandwich generation.”

Sadly, this isn’t unusual. I know many friends and even my fellow legislators who are raising kids and caring for parents at the same time.

Aging affects all of us.

So my question is: why don’t we act like it? Why don’t we invest in our senior care system to ensure that those who poured so much into us, receive the kindness and dignity they deserve?

I am disturbed by the lack of affordable, quality care available to our seniors living in Georgia. Aging with dignity is out of reach for too many Georgia seniors because they can’t foot the bill for even the lowest level of care.

Georgia ranks fifth in the country for the number of seniors who go hungry and can’t afford food. That’s just unacceptable.

In-home care is too expensive for many people. Assisted living and memory care facilities often cost too much or don’t have room. I’ve heard from many constituents who say they feel like they have to go broke before they can get any help.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I recently introduced a bill to significantly expand the use of Medicaid funds for assisting living and home care for Georgia seniors.

My bill helps our seniors grow old in place by allowing them to use Medicaid funds for home care. Not only does this help our seniors age with dignity, it saves taxpayers money! Nursing homes can cost double or triple the price of in-home care.

Right now, Georgia’s system forces families to spend all their money just to qualify for Medicaid. This means too many seniors end up in nursing homes before they really need that level of care.

Letting people use Medicaid funds for home care or assisted living gives seniors the chance to stay in their own homes while saving taxpayers money.

That sounds like a win-win to me.

And for those of us spending our own money to care for our parents, I also introduced a bill to increase the caregiver tax credit from $150 to $500. This will help all of us provide our loved ones with even more care.

My mother worked hard to ensure that all my needs were met when I was a kid. Now I’m doing my best to make sure seniors in Georgia get the care they deserve—because every senior deserves to age with dignity and every family deserves the support they need to care for their loved ones.

Jason Esteves is the Georgia state senator for Georgia’s 35th Senate District and a Columbus native.

This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 10:28 AM.