Connecticut budget would add funding for hospice care

Every year hundreds of terminally ill poor people on Medicaid die in sterile hospital rooms because Connecticut won't pay for their hospice care. But Gov. M. Jodi Rell's proposed state budget is calling for amending Connecticut's Medicaid plan to include hospice services for the terminally ill. Connecticut is one of three states without a hospice benefit in its Medicaid program, even though hospice care is more cost-effective than dying in a hospital.