1963-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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12 Welfare:- Report To the Honorable Board of Selectmen: Gentlemen The trend of increased costs for public assistance con- tinued, through the year 1963 and resulted in the highest expenditures on record for this department. Our expenditures of $57,125.15 for the year 1963 is great- er by $5,041.45 than our expenditures in 1962 and $16,207.76 greater than in 1961. As compared to last year our 1963 payments for Old Age Assistance increased $2,939.74, for Medical Assistance for the Aged increased $5,550.45, Disability Assistance in- creased $2,372.44 and administration increased $401.69. The payments for Aid to Dependent Children decreased $4,739.84 and for General Relief decreased $1,483.03. The increase in our total expenditures is reflected in higher costs for medical care. In 1963 the $28,846.69 medi- cal costs were 54.9 percent of our total expenditures; in 1962 the $17,770.93 medical costs represented 34.1 percent of our total expenditures and the 1961 medical costs of $8,162.63 were 19.9 percent of our total public assistance costs. The reason for the increased costs of medical care is that in 1963 more of our people needed prolonged hospital care. In 1963 we paid $19,006.44 for hospital care. In 1962 the charges were $10,762.44 and in 1961 hospital costs were $3,044.64. Contributing: in a lesser degree to the increased ex- penditure in 1963 was a 5.1 percent cost of living increase which became effective on September 1 and on October 1 those Old Age . Assistance who were not residents of nurs- ing or rest home received an increase of $1.00 monthly.