For many people the walls of a hospital are not what you want to see in your final days of life, especially knowing you can't afford to be there. According to Jennifer Pooley with Hospice Care of South Carolina most patients are more comfortable at home.
She says, "You are surrounded by your family your loved ones and you can die in a setting that is familiar to you that is comfortable that makes those final days a lot more peaceful."
That's what Hospice provides to patients, but South Carolina state budget cuts almost made that impossible for patients who only qualify for Medicaid.
She says, "We have patients who they have no family members who have no family here caring for them. We have some patients who it is just a local community member who might be assisting with them. They have no where else to go there is no other resource."
Their only other option is to go to the hospital, which Jennifer says is more costly in the long run.
According to Pooley, "It is much more costly. You look at what it cost to care for a hospice patient in the home where we maybe talking hundreds of dollars a day where we may be talking if you go into a hospital the average these days is roughly thirteen hundred dollars a day."
State Senator Tom Alexander of Walhalla says he couldn't let that happen and worked with the Department of Health and Human Services to find funds that won't be used in the next few months so the program can extend through june.
Sen. Alexander says, "This is a short term solution that only gets us through the end of this current fiscal year. We will be looking and working to continue the program in the next budget year."
In July it will be reconsidered when the budget is looked at once again.
Jennifer says for the people who depend on it, this means at least for now, they know they can die with dignity.
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