If cuts threatening to kill off California’s in-home care program are successful, the state will likely spend five times as much to place residents with disabilities in nursing homes instead.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the state to eliminate its In-Home Supportive Services program, which pays caregivers so that older residents and those with disabilities can remain in their homes.

Now, officials are scrambling to figure out what alternatives exist if the program ends. Cuts have already decimated the other support systems that existed for people with disabilities and advocates worry that residents relying on the in-home care program may have no choice but to enter nursing homes. Such facilities cost an average of $55,000 a year, five times the average for In-Home Supportive Services.

This is not the first time residents have faced such a conundrum. A similar effort to cut the In-Home Supportive Services program last year met such resistance that the program endured deep cuts, but continued to assist 400,000 people, reports the Sacramento Bee. To read more click here.

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