Take Action: Support the Better Care Better Jobs Act
With agreement and movement forward on President Biden’s infrastructure plan, LeadingAge is urging support of components of the plan that were not agreed upon but are moving forward in a standalone package. Members are asked to urge congressional support for the Better Care Better Jobs Act and its investment in home and community-based services (HCBS) and the direct care workforce.
The message is simple: Pass the Better Care Better Jobs Act for care in the home and the community. The Act will make a significant investment in HCBS and strengthen our direct care workforce. We now have the opportunity to invest $400 billion in HCBS as Congress considers this new legislation alongside the continuing negotiations on infrastructure for our care economy.
The Act would make permanent the enhanced 10 percent HCBS Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for eligible states on the condition that they:
- strengthen and expand access to HCBS;
- strengthen and expand the HCBS workforce;
- show quality improvement over time; and
- comply with maintenance of effort provisions.
The Act also encourages innovative models that benefit direct care workers and care recipients, support quality and accountability, facilitate state planning, make permanent spousal impoverishment protections, and make permanent the Money Follows the Person program.
Please ACT NOW by contacting your U.S. Representative and Senators here and urging them to invest in our aging services infrastructure.
A summary of the Act’s provisions can be found here, and the legislative text is here.
Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-929-9342