Staff Contact

North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services

Governor's Advisory Council on Aging

Recommendations for 2007

1. Appropriate at least $10 million to expand funding for the Home and Community Care Block Grant which funds services for older adults at the local level such as home delivered meals and in-home aide services (over 10,000 older adults are on waiting lists).
   
   
2. Increase the asset limit for Medicaid eligibility for aged, blind, and disabled persons from $2,000 to $6,000 for an individual and from $3,000 to $9,000 for a couple.
   
   
3. Appropriate $2 million for use of Area Agencies on Aging to assist with the provision of indoor plumbing for older adults without these facilities. According to 2000 Census data, 8,184 persons 60 and older in the state do not have complete plumbing.
   
   
4. Ensure the continuing viability of the Community Alternatives Program for Disabled Adults (CAP/DA), a Medicaid waiver program which allows adults 18 and older who qualify for nursing home care to remain in their homes.
   
   
5. Enact a “De facto Custodian Law” similar to what other states have done [e.g., Kentucky and Indiana] to allow a court to grant a caregiver the legal authority necessary to adequately parent the children in their care.
   
   
6. Appropriate $2 million for each year of the biennium to the Division of Aging and Adult Services for yearly allocations to each area agency to provide for the development of focal point senior centers in each county, keeping $200,000 each year for related training, planning and administration at the Division of Aging and Adult Services.
   
   
7. Reinstate the tax credit for long-term care insurance, which expired January 1, 2004.