KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – It’s a part of the health care debate that hits home for many East Tennesseans.

At only 1.5 percent of the nation’s health care budget, home health care is argued as one of the most cost-effective forms of care. Now it’s facing some major cuts from Medicare reform.

Seventy-two year old F. Scott Tygert spends most of his time at home with his handmade guitars. That is when he’s not hooked up to his breathing machine.

“I remember the first test I stopped breathing about 300 times,” says Tygert. “When they tell you that, you gladly accept the additional hardware that goes with the disease.”

Tygert developed sleep apnea about five years ago. He says Medicare and his own insurance help, but home health care was his best option.
“It's not covering everything 100 percent. I don't know where those [plans] are,” he says.

Lambert's Health Care of Knoxville works with many home patients like Tygert. The staff says standing up for home care needs to be a major part of national health care reform.

“Part of the solution is to drive people away from acute care, expensive care when they don't need it and keep them healthy and active at home as long as they can. Part of the solution in reform is reform where health care is taking place,” says Randy Wolfe, owner and president of Lambert’s.

The place you often get the most bang for your buck is the home, says Wolfe. For a patient who needs oxygen, a year’s supply is often cheaper than one single night he or she would spend in the hospital without it. “We can take care of a patient in the home for a year for oxygen for about a day's stay in a hospital,” says Wolfe.

But instead of devoting resources to cost-effective home care, “the budget is getting smaller for that even though we've got an aging population and we need to make provisions for home care instead of taking it away,” he says.

Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R – 2nd District) says he's fighting for a version of health care reform that would benefit all East Tennesseans.

“The only kind of reforms that will decrease costs are those that move toward a free market system and we don't have that now,” says Rep. Duncan. “We're not even close.”