By Bob Katzen
Northampton 20-year-old Vassar College student Noah Daube-Valois has launched the $72.80 Project, a podcast series spotlighting the financial realities faced by nursing home and rest home residents surviving on a $72.80 a month personal allowance.
Currently, the Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), the monthly stipend Medicaid (MassHealth) recipients are permitted to retain from their income, is $72.80 to cover personal essentials not funded by facilities.
Supporters note that In Massachusetts, one of the most expensive states in the country, the PNA has remained stagnant at $72.80 per month (roughly $2.40 per day) since fiscal year 2008. By contrast states such as Alaska allow up to $200 per month, Nevada provides $163 and Florida grants $160.
Daube-Valois created the project after spending the summer coordinating activities for residents at Rockridge Retirement Community in Northampton. “Some of the activities I facilitate are trips to the Big Y and Walmart,” said Daube-Valois “Recently, an older resident broke down in tears explaining that on $72.80 a month, after meeting his personal care needs, he cannot even afford to take his grandson out for ice cream like his own grandfather did for him. When our elders are forced to ration basic dignity in one of the wealthiest states in the nation, policy has failed. I created this podcast to spark a multi-generational fight for the right thing to do.”
The group Dignity Alliance Massachusetts has designated raising the PNA as one of its primary legislative priorities. Several measures, pending before the Legislature, propose increasing the monthly allowance and indexing future adjustments to inflation.
“For nearly two decades, nursing home residents on MassHealth have had their discretionary income frozen while the cost of everyday living skyrocketed,” said former Sen. Dick Moore, chair of the Legislative Workgroup for Dignity Alliance Massachusetts. “Noah’s podcast brings human faces and lived experiences to numbers on a budget sheet. It’s past time for the Legislature to restore basic financial dignity to our most vulnerable residents.”
You can follow the podcast at https://tinyurl.com/Project7280 and by streaming on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.