Cash Grant Proposal in Ohio

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Up to 200 disabled people would leave nursing homes and use the state and federal money that would have gone to the institutions to hire home health aides in an experimental project the Senate proposed in the state budget.

Several states have pilot projects in which Medicaid money goes directly to the person to spend on health care instead of nursing homes.

States must ask federal permission to start such programs, and President Bush favors the concept, said Mary Kahn, spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Ohio's application would be made only if the proposal stays in the budget through a full Senate vote this week and then a joint committee to work out differences with the House version of the $51 billion, two-year spending plan. Gov. Bob Taft must sign a balanced budget by July 1.