President Joe Biden, in a speech in Pittsburgh in March, outlined his American job plan, including a significant investment in Medicaid home and community services. (Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images / TNS)
President Joe Biden’s efforts to remove people with disabilities from waiting lists by investing billions in Medicaid home and community services appear to be stalling at the moment, but the plan could soon be given new life.
The proposal to invest $ 400 billion in the community-based service system was part of Biden’s American Jobs Plan, a far-reaching infrastructure proposal that was tabled in March.
At the time, the White House said, “These investments will help hundreds of thousands of Americans finally get the long-term services and support they need while creating new jobs and providing caregivers with a long overdue raise, better performance and opportunity.” Form or join a union and bargain collectively. “
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But from the start, Republicans rejected the domestic and community-based services plan, arguing that it had no place in an infrastructure bill. And the proposal is missing from a bipartisan infrastructure deal that Biden approved this week.
“It’s frustrating that an issue that is bipartisan – because voters in every district and in every state need HCBS – is being left out because of the semantics,” said Nicole Jorwic, senior director of public policy at The Arc, who noted that the community-based service component continues to query better than any other part of the American employment plan.
However, despite the setback, Jorwic and other proponents expect the additional funding for home and community services to be included in a budget balancing bill that could be passed by Democrats alone in the coming months.
Just this week, the Democrats passed a bill in Congress to make Biden’s plan a reality. The bill, known as the Better Care Better Jobs Act, would give states a 10 percentage point increase in the matching funding they receive from the federal government for home and community services if they meet certain requirements. It also contains incentives for states to strengthen the workforce in direct care.
Supporters emphasize that the measure is already supported by 40 of the 100 senators in the country.
Legislation can’t come soon enough, said Sarah Meek, senior director of Legislative Affairs at the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), which represents disability service providers nationwide. She said that pre-pandemic staff shortages meant vendors were often unable to open new service lines, but these issues have worsened and some agencies now lack the staff to continue serving existing customers with disabilities.
“We’re at a breaking point and something like this has to happen,” said Meek.
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