Last week, while the Senate was out on recess, our team was hard at work gathering signatures on a letter urging the Senate to include investment in Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) in any Build Back Better package that moves forward.
Today, when the Senate is back in session, we’ll be delivering the letter with over 150 organizations signed on to Majority Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy. Signers include AARP, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the ACLU, Moms Rising, and Goodwill Industries International.
Investments in HCBS are essential to address the magnitude of needs of older and disabled people – needs that have only been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Increased funding will broaden access to services, helping to clear waiting lists for services that now stretch to over 800,000 people nationwide. It will also address the direct care workforce crisis by creating more direct care jobs and improving job quality, addressing persistent inequities that the pandemic exacerbated for a workforce primarily made up of women of color. Finally, this investment will provide relief to family caregivers, who often take responsibility for care in the face of daunting waiting lists and worker shortages.
