Clearing this hurdle was HUGE for our movement and is an important first step.
We have BIG news: the House passed the Build Back Better bill, which includes significant investments in home and community based services (HCBS) and other care infrastructure.
The bill includes:
Clearing this hurdle is HUGE for our movement and it’s an important first step in realizing a future where America’s home care workers, the majority of whom are women of color, receive a family-sustaining wage and those who need care — veterans, older people, and people with disabilities — will be able to receive quality, affordable care services at home.
We are here because of supporters like you, who marched, wrote letters, tweeted, and made calls.
THANK YOU.
We are also here because of the steadfast support of our champions in the House. Will you join us in thanking them?
The majority of the bill’s $150 billion investment in home care will strengthen the existing Medicaid program, the National Family Caregiver Support Program and other services.
These critical investments would mean so much to so many people, including Connie from Georgia.
In 2018, Connie’s 27-year-old daughter was diagnosed with triple-negative metastatic inflammatory breast cancer. To receive proper medical care, Connie’s daughter, her 8-year-old granddaughter and her 3-year-old grandson who lives with sickle cell disease moved in with Connie.
Not only did Connie have to juggle her schedule to ensure her daughter met all of her appointments and received her treatments, but she was also tasked with ensuring her grandson continued receiving his medical treatment and went to his medical appointments.
Connie tragically lost her daughter in November 2019. The sad and traumatic experience was worsened by the fact critical home and community based services are not widely available to people with disabilities like her grandson.
Build Back Better’s investments will clear Medicaid waitlists so more older adults, veterans and people with disabilities can access high quality homecare so they can stay in their homes and communities longer. Currently, nearly 820,000 people who qualify for HCBS through Medicaid are on waitlists — and that number will likely increase as the population of adults aged 65 and older nearly doubles from 2016 to 2060.
The bill would also expand resources available to family caregivers and includes funding for grants to states and territories to provide services for family caregivers caring for older adults.
This is, quite literally, life changing legislation. And we are so very grateful to supporters like you, our coalition partners and our champions in the House who helped move this bill forward.
Build Back Better is a historic investment in care, an investment that will lift the working people of color who power our economy and our families. We still have much work ahead of us as the bill moves through the Senate. But, today, we celebrate.