On August 16, 2022, LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith-Sloan sent a letter to co-chairs of the newly formed House 21 Century Long-Term Care Caucus, Representatives Ann Kuster (D-NH) and Bryan Steil (R-WI).

The letter takes the boldest asks from the LeadingAge Aging Services Workforce Now! campaign and other policy priorities and asks that the 21st Century Long Term Caucus to lead on developing solutions.LeadingAge’s goal is to influence the Caucus to take on the large, multi-faceted issues facing the long-term care system and to work toward solutions. LeadingAge agrees that the current workforce crisis needs both immediate and longer-term solutions. The creation of a Caucus lends itself to taking on the big challenges – we identified those as:

• Alleviate the strain on our long-term care system, and enact long-term care financing reform, such as the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act (H.R. 4289);

• Ensure Medicare and Medicaid adequately covers the costs of care and implements a methodology for calculating a living wage as highlighted in the LeadingAge LTSS Center’s Making Care Work Pay; and enact permanent Medicaid payment changes across all long-term care settings;

• Ensure an adequate workforce, developing both domestic and international pipelines of workers as well as making jobs serving older adults respected, well paid with good benefits and sustainable; and

• Expand the supply of affordable housing for older adults, and significantly expand affordable housing resources, which includes allocating expansive funding for new Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Homes, new Project-Based Rental Assistance homes, and Service Coordinators across the affordable senior housing portfolio.

Last month, Representative Kuster, co-chair of the House 21st Century Long-Term Care Caucus, joined LeadingAge for our Congressional briefing and said “The Caucus provides us with an opportunity to make meaningful changes to strengthen our nation’s long-term care workforce to enhance the quality of care. As the aging population continues to grow, the need to respond creatively to the issues of recruitment and retention is now urgent.” LeadingAge could not agree more and will continue to work with Representatives Kuster and Steil to set policy goals that meet the urgency of the moment as well as to recruit more members to the Caucus.

The full text of the letter can be found here.