Home Care Advocates, Say Build Back Better Funding ‘Critically Important’ For Industry

Angela Phillips-Mills’ mother, who is in her late 70s, has had two serious abdominal surgeries this year, including one shortly before President Joe Biden’s inauguration and another in September. Her mother will be coming home from a rehabilitation center this week, but her insurance is going to pay only for about six to eightweeks of home care. She’ll likely need much more than that. Anything additional will have to be paid for out of pocket at about $60 an hour.

Increasing home- and community-based services for older and disabled people is part of the current framework of Biden’s Build Back Better bill, which seeks to expand the nation’s social safety net.

Congress has been scrambling to try to finish hammering out an agreement on the centerpiece of Biden’s legislative agenda, but those who advocate for and work in the home care industry, as well as those in need of services, already view the proposed spending plan as a long-awaited and critical first step to reducing backlogs for care and expanding home-based services.

“The demand has for decades far exceeded what the capacity is within the system,” said Eric Buehlmann, deputy executive director for public policy at the National Disability Rights Network.