The Wonk Room

McCain’s Contradictory Rhetoric On Home Health Care

Yesterday, in an answer to a question about providing affordable care to Americans with disabilities, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he would “encourage home health care as opposed to institutional care”:

And we need to have policies that encourage home health care as opposed to institutionalized care. And we need to treat people on an outcome basis, that don’t pay for every test or every procedure, every visit to the doctor; but treat them for a period of time and then pay that provider.

McCain’s answer may have surprised disability advocates. Just last month, during a Town Hall event in Denver, McCain expressed strong opposition to the Community Choice Act, which would make more home care available to people on Medicaid.

After the audience member asking the question explained that the act — which has a total of 113 co-sponsors in the House and 21 in the Senate– “would end the institutional bias and allow people with disabilities to chose where we would live and receive services,” McCain expressed no support for home-based care and instead insisted that he “will not” support the act “because I don’t think that it’s the right kind of legislation.”

Watch both answers:

During the event in Denver in July, McCain implied that he had discussed the act with advocates in April. But by June, McCain seemed to have forgotten about the legislation. When an audience member asked the senator “would you support the Community Choice Act, Senate Bill 799,” McCain said, “I’m not sure which — I don’t know bills by their numbers” and instead touted his support for the Americans with Disabilities Act, which did nothing to promote home care.