October 15, 2021, Washington, DC —With Congress mulling cuts to the president’s reconciliation package, the chair of a group of 67 prominent national aging advocacy organizations underscored the importance of fully funding services and supports for millions of older Americans who need care—and the families struggling to help them.

Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, and current chair of the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO), called this a decisive moment. “Don’t put older adults on the chopping block,” said Sloan on behalf of LeadingAge. “Don’t pretend that older Americans are invisible. Millions of American families have nowhere else to turn, and they are waiting desperately for these investments.”

Sloan’s letter on behalf of LCAO—a coalition of major national nonprofit organizations concerned with the well-being of America’s older population—called on Congress to support “the most robust package possible,” and endorsed more than a dozen separate measures to help older adults and the workers and the families who support them.

Added Sloan: “The human consequences of cutting aging services out of the reconciliation bill would be catastrophic. Already more than 60% of nonprofit aging services providers say they’ve had to turn people away from receiving home care, adult day care services, and 24/7 skilled nursing care, including 25% who’ve had to close units or buildings. As our country grows older and more people outlive their savings, these problems are growing worse by the month.

Earlier this year, the Biden Administration proposed making the largest investments in aging services in generations, including $400 billion for home and community-based services, as well as billions in new funds for affordable housing and expanded broadband services.

Last week, LeadingAge sent a separate series of letters to Congressional and White House negotiators. “Given the great and growing need for these programs, now is precisely the wrong time to remove key programs and supports for older adults from the package,” wrote Sloan. “We are dismayed that the Build Back Better package has shrunk dramatically.” .

Sloan underscored the costs of not providing new support for services for older adults:

• More older Americans will experience homelessness — because they can’t afford to stay in their homes or rent a new place. Too many are deciding between medications and rent right now.
• More people won’t have the help they need to grow older at home — a trained caregiver who comes by to help with bathing, toileting or taking the right dose of medicine at the right time. Someone to prepare meals, and take older adults to critical medical appointments.
• Staff shortages will continue to grow for home care, day care, assisted living and 24/7 nursing homes — which means that more care providers will have to turn people away. Some are closing their doors.
• More families who are juggling their jobs and lives with caring for an older relative will lose access to “adult day” services that provide meals, memory care, recreation and other support.

Aging services are an essential part of our country’s health care infrastructure, but America has underinvested in the sector for decades. The result: a rickety collection of programs and initiatives sorely in need of greater financial support and coordination. Provisions currently included in House committees’ Build Back Better legislation would address this with funding to expand existing care programs or support approaches now in development across the country.

We represent more than 5,000 nonprofit aging services providers and other mission-minded organizations that touch millions of lives every day. Alongside our members and 38 state partners, we use applied research, advocacy, education, and community-building to make America a better place to grow old. Our membership, which now includes the providers of the Visiting Nurse Associations of America, encompasses the continuum of services for people as they age, including those with disabilities. We bring together the most inventive minds in the field to lead and innovate solutions that support older adults wherever they call home. For more information visit leadingage.org.