LeadingAge to Congress: Older Adults’ Needs Cannot Be Ignored

WASHINGTON—Following the House’s passage of its budget resolution, as Congress forges ahead on crafting a budget reconciliation bill, Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, urged policymakers to protect the critical programs and policies relied on by older adults and families.

Sloan’s comments are below:

“As Senate and House committees assess what federal spending to add and what to cut, older adults’ needs cannot and should not be ignored.

Our country’s rapidly growing older population depends on the multitude of services and supports financed through many programs supported either fully or in part by the federal government. Consider Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program: it sustains long-term services and supports as the foundation of how we finance and deliver care in nursing homes, in the home, in assisted living and in the community. The numbers in this budget resolution call for deep reductions in federal financing of the Medicaid program. Such cuts would force states to make decisions that will severely limit older adults’ access to care and the ability of our nonprofit and mission-driven members to provide that care. Simply put, the current federal financing of Medicaid must be preserved.

That’s not all. Tax-exempt municipal bonds are a critical source of capital for LeadingAge members and other community-based nonprofit organizations. The loss of tax-exempt status for interest earned on municipal bonds would be particularly damaging to nonprofits by limiting their ability to invest in creating and sustaining essential projects that serve older adults in their communities, including independent living, assisted living and memory care, nursing homes, life plan communities that offer a continuum of housing and services–not to mention affordable housing for low-income seniors. In fact, tax-exempt bonds partnered with 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs) finance more than half of all the affordable rental homes produced and preserved by LIHTC.

Congress can support older adults and providers now by eliminating burdensome regulations including the nursing home staffing rule. Though well-intentioned, the mandate in its final form is misguided and unrealistic given current workforce shortages and a lack of funding to recruit, train and retain nurses and nurse aides. Repealing it could save $22 billion over 10 years. Congressional action, in addition to the recent decision to vacate the staffing rule, would ensure its demise.

And, as mentioned above, more affordable senior homes are needed. Congress can address this by increasing the annual Housing Credit allocation to states by at least 50% and providing basis boosts for rural properties and properties that serve people with extremely low incomes.

The need to do right by older adults in the reconciliation process has never been more important: by 2050, adults age 65 years and older will comprise nearly a quarter of the U.S. population. It is essential that they will have access to critically needed services and supports.”