WHEREAS, institutional care for the elderly is expensive and studies show that older patients are happier and regain functional ability more rapidly when they receive health care at home; and

WHEREAS, Medicaid offers full coverage for long-term care in a nursing home, but in most states little or no coverage for these services in the community or at home, with the result that older persons are forced to enter institutions and society finds itself saddled with an enormous Medicaid bill;

BE IT RESOLVED: That the 1981 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association urges support for legislation proposing major changes in the way Medicare-Medicaid treats older patients, through:

1. Federal support to states providing for home health services, homemaker services, medical supplies for use in the home, nutritional counseling; and
2. Tax credits to families caring for elderly persons in their homes; and
3. Funding for preventive health services to reduce the need for more expensive care at a later date; and
4. Funding for the development and implementation of new models of comprehensive mental health services for the aging.