The proposed increase in Medicaid and home health care for people with disabilities and the elderly concerns advocates.
They are worried that the $3.5 trillion proposed budget will be greatly reduced to the point where it won't be able to fund an increase in jobs and wages.
“We have seen huge losses of life in congregate settings alone, and so we need to provide some type of outlet or valve to that issue, and we’re going to be seeing even more individuals with disabilities in the future,” Mia Ives-Rublee, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at Center for American Progress, told Roll Call. “We’re talking about baby boomers who are retiring and getting older and getting sicker. We’re talking about individuals who have long-haul COVID, who have significant disabilities, who are going to likely need that long-term service.”
Legislators are considering increasing federal matching rates to support staffing and pay improvements to help eliminate the more than 800,000 people on waiting lists for home and community care under Medicaid, according to Roll Call.
States will probably face greater challenges in finding and hiring additional aides to care for more patients if pays and benefits are not improved.
Advocacy groups continue to try and get their message across. Various organizations, such as the Service Employees International Union and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, created the Care Can’t Wait Coalition in 2020. The coalition recently held a 24-hour vigil at the Capitol that featured personal stories of workers, family caregivers and patients, Roll Call reported.
