Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Bob Casey (D-PA), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), introduced the Better Care Better Jobs Act, a key element of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. This legislation would make a historic investment in home and community-based services by strengthening and expanding access to quality home care services and lifting up the caregiving workforce that provides them.
“Even before the pandemic, hard work wasn’t paying off for millions of workers and their families. This plan recognizes that caregiving IS work – work that makes all other work possible,” said Brown. “The Better Care Better Jobs Act will take the vital step in lifting up community-based services and supporting those in the caregiving workforce.”
Under our current long-term care system, too many people cannot access the care they need in their homes and communities even though these are the environments where most people prefer to receive care. The Better Care Better Jobs Act would provide states with enhanced Medicaid funding for home and community-based services if they carry out certain activities that will support expanding access to these services and strengthen the workforce providing them. It would also provide funding to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to carry out the bill’s programs and conduct oversight, include incentives for states to expand supports for family caregivers, and create opportunities to strengthen and expand the home care workforce.
The Better Care Better Jobs Act is also cosponsored by U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).
Read more about the Better Care Better Jobs Act here.
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