From DC is Justice in Getting older’s weekly roundup of nationwide information and assets about points impacting older adults. To obtain From DC in your inbox as quickly as its printed, join our mailing record.
Right here’s what we’re watching in Washington:
Leaked 2026 HHS Price range Draft Reveals Menace to Vital Applications for Older Adults
Final week, a draft of the Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) 2026 Discretionary Price range Passback from the Workplace of Administration and Price range was leaked to the general public. Whereas this doc is just not last, it previews plans for drastic cuts to the HHS funds, totaling $40 billion for Fiscal Yr 2026.
The proposed funds would eradicate funding for a lot of important primary wants packages for older adults, together with the Lengthy-Time period Care Ombudsman Program, assist for Grownup Protecting Companies packages, State Well being Insurance coverage Help Applications (SHIP), Elder Rights Help Actions, and extra. If these cuts happen, older adults dealing with nursing facility eviction, abuse and exploitation, or well being care points can have much less assist and fewer companies out there to them to navigate these troublesome conditions.
The President’s Price range is often seen as a messaging doc, as Congress has the ability to make funds choices. Nonetheless, the message the Administration is sending is evident: the HHS “reorganization” and dismantling of the Administration for Group Residing that occurred earlier this month is just not solely a shifting of packages to totally different companies—additionally it is getting ready to eradicate many important companies for older adults.
Justice in Getting older and our companions are fastidiously monitoring the funds course of for each FY 25 and FY 26, and we are going to inform our community of any alternatives for motion.
Congress Speeding to Go Price range Invoice with Unprecedented Medicaid and SNAP Cuts by Memorial Day
Congress is wrapping up a two-week recess and will likely be again in Washington, DC, subsequent week. Committees within the Home are anticipated to start hearings to markup laws to enact the tax and spending cuts outlined within the funds decision that handed each chambers earlier this month.
The decision calls for enormous and unprecedented cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Diet Help Program (SNAP), and different packages older adults depend on to satisfy their primary wants. These cuts to primary wants packages can be used to finance tax breaks for the rich and firms and different dangerous insurance policies like immigration enforcement.
Speaker Johnson is aiming to finalize a complete funds invoice for a vote by the complete Home earlier than Memorial Day. The expectation is that if the Home can go the funds invoice, the Senate is not going to undergo its personal committee course of however as a substitute attempt to transfer the invoice for a vote by the complete Senate as rapidly as potential.
This implies we should activate now to make sure the Home doesn’t embody cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, or every other primary wants packages within the funds invoice and inform the Senate they need to clarify they won’t vote for any invoice that does.
Contact your lawmakers each in DC and in your state and urge them to reject any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. See our assets on Medicaid Protection, together with our new reality sheet with SAGE: LGBTQ+ Older Adults Can’t Afford Cuts to Medicaid.
New Evaluation of Previous Medicaid Funding Cuts Exhibits States Will Lower HCBS
In a current Well being Affairs article, researchers clarify how states responded to funds shortfalls after the Nice Recession (2010-12) when Congress prematurely ended enhanced federal Medicaid funding to states. Each single state made cuts to their Medicaid house and community-based companies (HCBS) packages, both lowering advantages or lowering the variety of individuals coated, or each. Ready lists for HCBS additionally grew in lots of states.
HCBS are usually the one supply of paid long-term care at house and are key to serving to older adults age in place. But, as a result of federal regulation doesn’t require states to cowl HCBS and HCBS comprise nearly all of non-compulsory Medicaid spending, these packages are sometimes the primary to be lower when states face funds shortfalls.
The brand new evaluation demonstrates that if Congress cuts funding or shifts any prices onto states for Medicaid or SNAP, states will reply by taking away home-based look after older adults and folks with disabilities–the precise teams Republican management is claiming they need to defend.
Further evaluation demonstrates that cuts to HCBS would result in elevated nursing house stays–which states are required to cowl–at elevated prices to Medicaid. The researchers estimate that lowering HCBS spending by even 15% would enhance the variety of days individuals age 50 and older with Medicaid are in nursing properties by 1.5 million, at a value of $467 million.
Learn the complete evaluation and discover state-by-state knowledge on HCBS cuts. Use this knowledge and our reality sheet to point out Congress and different policymakers in your state that Reducing Medicaid Harms Older Adults No Matter How It’s Sliced.
New Justice in Getting older Assets
- Truth Sheet: LGBTQ+ Older Adults Can’t Afford Cuts to Medicaid (4/24)
- Alert: Court docket Grants Class Certification & Denies Maryland’s Movement to Dismiss in Nursing Residence Case (4/24)
- Advocate Information: Oral Well being for Older Adults in California (4/17)
- Remark Letter: Justice in Getting older’s Touch upon the Market Integrity and Affordability Proposed Rule (4/16)
- Truth Sheet: Threats to LGBTQ+ Older Adults in Well being Care, Financial Safety, Housing, and Elder Rights (4/16)
- Remark Letter: Justice in Getting older’s Testimony on Language Entry for People with Restricted English Proficiency (4/15)
- Assertion: Justice in Getting older Calls on Social Safety Administration to Reverse Its Resolution to Place Immigrants on “Grasp Loss of life File” (4/11)
- Alert: Federal Court docket Rejects Minimal Staffing Requirements for Nursing Amenities (4/8)
- Remark Letter: Justice in Getting older’s Feedback on Ohio’s 1115 Waiver to Add Work Necessities (4/7)
- Truth Sheet: Threats to Older Immigrants in Well being Care, Financial Safety, Housing, and Elder Rights (4/07)
- Truth Sheet: Understanding Vital Connections Between Immigration and Older Adults (4/07)
- Truth Sheet: NJ FamilyCare is a Lifeline for Older Adults and Individuals with Disabilities (4/03)
- Alert: Justice in Getting older and Companions Sue Social Safety to Defend Entry to Advantages (4/02)
- Problem Temporary and Truth Sheet: Supporting Older Individuals’ Fundamental Wants: Well being Care, Earnings, Housing, and Meals (3/28)
- Assertion: Assertion on the Elimination of the Administration for Group Residing (ACL) (3/27)
- Truth Sheet: 2025 Legislative Payments and Price range Requests Associated to California’s Grasp Plan for Aging (3/26)
- Advocate’s Information: Mitigating the Dangerous Results of Medicaid Property Restoration: Methods for State Advocates (3/25)
- Truth Sheet: Social Safety is Very important to Individuals Nationwide (3/11)
- Remark Letter: Justice in Getting older’s Written Assertion for the Well being Subcommittee, Home Committee on Methods & Means (3/11)
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