Tag Archives for long-term care

Democrats Will Have to Compromise if They Lose Georgia Senate Run-Off

Published in the Pawtucket Times on December 7, 2020

With Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden taking the White House, the Washington, DC-based National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM) called on Congressional lawmakers to address the needs of older Americans during lame-duck session ending Jan. 3 and throughout President Biden’s first 100 days in office.  Can Congressional lawmakers put aside political differences to pass a last-ditch Stimulus package compromise, a defense bill, and consider aging legislation piling up in just 27 days when the lame-duck session ends?  Will there be political grid lock after President Biden takes office on Jan. 20 if the GOP maintains control of the Senate block Congress from taking up legislation impacting older Americans?

Legislation Piling Up in Lame-Duck Session

“Though this is normally a time when expectations for Congressional action are low, the National Committee expects our elected representatives to act on behalf of seniors and other struggling Americans hit hard by the pandemic,” says NCPSSM president and CEO Max Richtman, in correspondence sent to Congress on Dec. 3.

Across the nation seniors are the hardest hit age group by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  “Eight out of 10 deaths from COVID in the U.S. have been in adults 65 years old and older. Whether as part of an omnibus funding bill, continuing resolution or COVID relief package, The National Committee is urging lawmakers to pass urgently needed measures for seniors,” says Richtman.

Richtman calls on Congress to address the Social Security “Notch” issue. He warns that if Congress doesn’t take action, workers born in 1960 and 1961, will see lower Social Security retirement benefits in the future. According to the Chief Actuary of Social Security, this will sharply reduce benefits for those born in 1960 compared to the benefits received by people born just one year earlier, creating an effect known as a “notch,” notes NCPSSM’s correspondence.

Congress can correct this notch in Social Security benefits by passing Rep. John Larson’s (D-CT) H.R. 7499, the “Social Security COVID Correction and Equity Act,” says Richtman.  The legislative proposal would increase benefits for those born in 1960 and 1961 without impact the benefits for any other beneficiary. 

In October, the Social Security Administration announced that approximately 70 million Americans would see a meager 1.3 percent increase Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income. “More than half of seniors receive over one-half of their income from Social Security, and it provides at least 90 percent of income for more than one-in-five seniors.  These seniors are dependent on a reasonable COLAs to maintain even a modest standard of living in retirement,” said Richtman.

With retirees experiencing financial difficulties during the pandemic, a $20 increase in their monthly check might not help them to pay for spiraling health care and drug costs, along with the expenses of purchasing personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies to keep them safe. 

Richtman’s correspondence also pushes for passage of Rep. Peter DeFazio’s H.R. 8598, “Emergency Social Security COLA for 2021 Act,” to provide Social Security beneficiaries with a 3 percent increase (or a $250 per month flat increase) which would reduce the impact of the small 2021 COLA increase. 

Protecting the Fiscal Viability of Social Security

Last August, NCPSSM and aging advocacy groups opposed President Trump’s signed executive order that would allow employers to defer workers’ payroll tax contributions for the rest of the year.  Between Jan. 1, 2021 and April 30, 2021, these employees will be required to pay back their deferred payroll taxes, doubling their FICA taxes for the first four months of 2021.  The National Committee has supported efforts to ease the burden for those affected by this hardship. 

NCPSSM correspondence also called on Congress to extend a protection to lower-income Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, including ‘Money Follows the Person’ (which provides funding for states to help skilled nursing care patients to remain in their homes) and impoverishment protections for the spouses of Medicaid recipients receiving long-term care.

Finally, Richtman requested extending the funding for Medicare Low-Income and Enrollment Assistance, which provides funding for State Health Insurance Assistance Programs and Area Agencies on Aging to assist low-income seniors access programs such as the Medicare Prescription Drug Program Part D Low-Income Subsidy.

NCPSSM’s “wish list”, detailed in Richtman’s correspondence, could easily be rolled into a continuing resolution that Congress must pass by Dec. 11 to get the federal government operational. But, any of the legislative proposals pushed by The National Committee would be bottled up in the Senate, by GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, referred to as the “grim reaper,” he Republicans maintain control of the Senate during the 117th Congress.

GOP ‘Grim Reaper’ Keeps Democratic Bills from Consideration

Last February, on Fox News Friday, anchor Bret Baier asked McConnell to confirm Democratic charges that House passed and Senate proposed legislation would never see the light of day on the Senate Floor.  At the time of this interview, the GOP Senator, controlling his chamber’s legislative agenda, confirmed that 395 bills sitting in his chamber would not be passed.

“It is true,” admitted McConnell during the Fox News interview.  “They’ve been on full left-wing parade over there, trotting out all of their left-wing solutions that are going to be issues in the fall campaign. They’re right. We’re not going to pass those.,” he said, recognizing the politics of a divided government. 

McConnell’s ‘Legislative Graveyard’ created by his blocking debate, markup and refusing to allow a vote on Democratic proposed legislation is well documented in the press and by a report released last September by Common Cause, a watch dog advocacy group with chapters in 35 states. “In fact, the Senate’s inaction has the 116th Congress on track to be the least productive in history, with just one percent of the bills becoming law [between] January 3, 2019 to September 16, 2020],” said Aaron Scherb, Common Cause’s director of legislation and author of the 2020 Democracy Scor

During an interview published on Sept. 16, 2020 in Newsweek, Scherb said, “There have been hundreds [of bills] that have been passed by the House at this point.  There have only been 158 enacted laws by this 116th Congress to this point.  Yet there are hundreds of bills that have passed the House but continue to sit in Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s desk, or his ‘legislative graveyard’ as it’s been called.”

With McConnell winning his reelection, the senator from Kentucky can only maintain control of the Senate’s legislative agenda if he can keep two GOP Senate seats up for grabs in next month’s Senate runoff in Georgia.  A Democratic win will give the party a majority 50 Senate seats, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie.

In order to pick up the two GOP Senate seats, held by incumbent Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Democrats must successfully mobilize voters and adequately fund the campaigns of Democrat Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnoc. At press time, millions of campaign dollars are pouring into Georgia’s Senate runoff elections, with the two GOP Senators bringing in more campaign donations because of Republican super-PACs giving them the spending edge. The Democrats are receiving their political contributions through small donors.

Even with the Democrats controlling the White House and House of Representatives, if McConnell maintains control of the Senate, legislative gridlock in the upper chamber will most certainly continue.  This will make it more difficult for the NCPSSM and other Washington, DC-based aging advocacy groups to successfully push for passage of legislation to ensure the financial security and health of seniors

Confronting the Long-Term Care Dilemma in Uncertain Times

Published in the Pawtucket Times on January 14, 2002

 Aging advocates are about to find out how many slides you can cut the Rhode Island budgetary pie, especially when lawmakers are predicting that the state’s deficit could soar to hundreds of millions.

With the backdrop of a recession, pushing to keep funding at current levels for existing programs and services this legislative session may be their only hope as advocates for affordable health care and housing, education, disabled persons, seniors, and low-income families call for their fair share, too.

Meanwhile, CHOICES, a broad-based coalition of provider organizations and advocate organizations, will push this legislative session for more funding to keep Rhode Island seniors in their homes.

The coalition representing home care agencies, assisted-living facilities, adult day care, housing, senior center, disabled and senior advocates and Meals on Wheels, will continue its efforts to urge the General Assembly for reforms to Rhode Island’s long-term care system, said Paula Parker, Executive Director of Rhode Island Partnership of Home Care and a CHOICES member.

“Consumers must have options to choose programs and services that can provide them with greater independence in familiar surroundings,” Park told ALL About Seniors, adding that this is an underlying principle of CHOICE’S philosophy.

During the state’s prosperous years, Rhode Island’s allocation for home and community-based services slowly inched up from seven to eight percent of the state’s total long-term care budget.  Parker noted, however, that General Assembly funding for long-term care services continued to be heavily weighted toward funding institutional facility care.

“The challenge today is to continue the momentum of increasing state support for home and community-based services in less prosperous times,” Parker said, because the start’s rising elderly population creates a need to expand options in long-term care.

Susan Sweet, a consultant, long-time consumer advocate and CHOICES member, added that the seven-year-old coalition plans to continue its education efforts to inform legislators and the public about the cost savings of home and community care for elders as opposed to institutional care.

For example, Sweet stated that full-time adult day care five days a week may cost up to $ 10,000 annually as compared to an average $38,000 bill for nursing facility care.

Options in the state’s continuum of care include assistance with the costs of pharmaceutical drugs, community-based programs, rehabilitation facilities and nursing facility care. Sweet said, “A menu of available choices allows seniors and their families to seek out and receive the most appropriate and cost-effective care for their current situation. That’s what CHOICES is all about.”

Can long-term care options assist lawmakers in controlling the state budget while providing needed services for seniors?

Yes, said Sweet. “Not only is the quality of life greatly enhanced for elders and their families when institutionalization is delayed or eliminated, but also individual assets and state contributions to care through the Medicaid program are greatly reduced or eliminated,” she said.

Recognizing that lawmakers must work within severe budgetary constraints. Sweet said she believes it should be fiscally short-sided not to recognize the significant budgetary savings that home and community-based care- and preventative care- bring to situations that, without intervention, would lead to costly health care such as hospitalization and protracted institutional stays.

“The challenge for Rhode Island is to continue progress on creating less restrictive and less expensive community services while continuing funding for needed acute and long-term care,” Sweet said, stressing that in a tie of decreasing revenues, this will not be an easy task.

Lawmakers must either conform the long-term care crisis now for today’s seniors in the shadow of the state’s current budget deficit or in later years, when the state’s demographic time bomb I ready to explode. For today’s seniors and for the aging baby boomers who follow in their footsteps, lawmakers, state agencies, providers and seniors  must cooperate in crafting a seamless long-term care system with options that enhance quality of life and provide independence. This may take years.

But until then, amid competing interests for limited state dollars, advocates for better long-term care will have to roll up their shelves with the support of senior and disabled constituents to get this year’s slice of the state budget pie.