Medicaid provides too little help to Holocaust survivors in need of assisted-living services to stay out of nursing homes and other institutions, lawmakers and advocates argued during a recent hearing before the Senate Special Committee on Aging.
Of the 109,000 to 140,000 Holocaust survivors in the U.S., one-fourth live at or below the poverty line, according data provided by the committee.
The need to have access to home-care options is especially crucial for Holocaust survivors because going into a nursing home could exacerbate psychological trauma, the hearing witnesses said.
Nursing homes or mental health facilities, survivor Jack Rubin testified, “conjure up for most survivors the most bitter memories of the way the Nazis treated us.”