President Joe Biden speaks at an event in Goffstown, NH, in March. The president said this week that he wants to do more to address the years-long wait for home and community-based services and take steps to strengthen the direct support workforce. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald/TNS)
As the Biden administration prepares to issue new rules aimed at bolstering support for people with disabilities, the president says much more work is needed.
In a speech this week, the president said he is committed to improving the country’s care infrastructure.
Biden said his administration will issue rules in the coming weeks to strengthen staffing standards in nursing homes and ensure a larger share of Medicaid payments go to home care workers.
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“But that won’t be enough,” Biden said. “I want to do more and we can do more.”
Biden cited the waiting list for Medicaid home and community-based services, which includes about 700,000 seniors and people with disabilities, the rising costs of long-term care and the challenges facing workers who support people with disabilities. .
The president said his budget proposal for next year would raise taxes so billionaires would address these problems head-on.
“We’re going to expand Medicaid home care services and reduce that backlog of 700,000 people,” Biden told family caregivers, care workers and other advocates gathered in Washington. “That will mean more people will be able to live and work in their own communities with dignity and independence. More home care workers will begin to receive better wages, the benefits and the dignity they deserve.”
Biden is also pushing for a national paid family and medical leave program.
Many of the proposals Biden is championing would require congressional action, and federal lawmakers have had great difficulty in recent years reaching a deal on spending. A deal was struck last month to fund the government for the current fiscal year, which began in October, and the upcoming election is likely to impose even more uncertainty ahead.
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