President Biden and Vice President Harris are working hard to help us meet the enormous challenges of family caregiving, including providing long term services and supports for our loved ones.    President Biden’s American Rescue Plan provided $25 billion to expand access to Medicare home and community-based services, including more than $9 billion to increase home care workers’ wages.  His new budget asks Congress to build on that initiative.  In the meantime, he has directed federal agencies to act now to help improve the lives of caregivers.  On April 18, President Biden issued a groundbreaking Executive Order with more than 50 actions to help the 53 million of us caring for loved ones.

• Family caregivers will get more help in caring for loved ones discharged from hospitals and those living with dementia.  The Administration will also work to expand access to respite care and help caregivers deal with daily stresses and information needs.

• Long-term care workers will see improvements in job quality, including incentives to Medicaid to expand incentives to home care workers and minimum nursing home staffing standards to ease burnout and improve quality.

• Veterans will have expanded access to home-based services and personal care assistance.

• Families will have more access to high-quality, affordable child care.

What You Can Do

• Let family and friends know about these efforts, through social media and word of mouth.  Too many Americans are unaware of the steps being taken.  A sample:  

If you are caring for a loved one, I have exciting news.  President Biden has just issued an Executive Order telling federal agencies to take more than 50 actions to  improve help for caregivers, expand access for home-based services to veterans, and improve job quality for long-term care workers.  You can read the White House summary here.  

• Send a letter to the editor, giving your own caregiving situation.  A sample:

As someone caring for an aging parent, I am glad to know that President Biden not only understands the financial and other challenges of caregiving but gets the need to do something about them.  He has already acted to expand access to home-based services so people like my father can remain at home.  He also knows the importance of providing the good wages and job quality needed to attract enough home care and nursing home workers to meet our needs.  President Biden deserves our support for his caregiving initiatives.