Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) is the only federally-funded program that covers the full range of supports older adults and people with disabilities need to live safely in their homes and connected to their communities. Despite the significant demand for HCBS, Congress has never funded these services at high enough levels.
Since 2021, both the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress have supported access to HCBS with emergency short-term funding, but haven’t addressed the underlying structural problems with the program that lead to waiting lists, low wages for direct care workers, and inequitable access to in-home care based on race, geography, disability, and other factors. This fact sheet, Home and Community-Based Services Federal Legislative Update, authored in partnership with Caring Across Generations, provides advocates with a timeline of what we’ve accomplished through various policy mechanisms and offers a roadmap for next steps.
