As we move into the new year, we look forward to continuing our work to advance policies that improve the lives of older adults and providing advocates with the resources needed to best serve older adults across the country. Here’s a look at our biggest collective successes in 2023, including resources that you may find useful in 2024!

Health and Long-Term Care

• We created a framework to help advocates and policymakers create and enact changes to make Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs & policies more equitable. Check out our Advancing Equity in HCBS Round-up of Resources and News.
• Following many years of advocacy, California eliminated its asset limit for Medi-Cal eligibility. Older adults and people with disabilities will no longer have to prove their assets each year and face the possibility of losing their health care coverage improperly. Check out our webinar explaining these changes.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has improved access to affordable Medicare coverage through Medicare Savings Programs, changes we’ve been advocating for years. Get an update on the final rule from September 2023.

Economic Security & Housing

• In an exciting affirmation of Justice in Aging’s expertise and leadership on Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), President Biden nominated Kate Lang, Justice in Aging’s Director of Federal Income Security, to serve on the Social Security Advisory Board. She is awaiting Senate confirmation.
• Justice in Aging’s advocacy with coalition partners led to a bi-partisan introduction in Congress of the Savings Penalty Elimination Act, which would raise the SSI asset levels from $2,000 to $10,000 for individuals and from $3,000 to $20,000 for married couples, allowing people to save for emergencies and still qualify for SSI.

Advancing Equity & Elder Rights

• We released a special report, Fulfilling the Promise of Equity for Older Adults: Opportunities in Law and Policy, examining how ageism is linked to intersectional discrimination based on other identities and disadvantages specific communities of older adults. The report concludes with recommendations for changes in law and policy to address the resulting inequities.
• We completed a series of briefs for advocates to explain the unique barriers older adults reentering our communities after incarceration face and to help them connect their clients to health care, economic security, and housing. Access the entire series here.
• We released an issue brief, Justice for Tribal Elders: Issues Impacting American Indian and Alaska Native Older Adults, that discusses the inequities tribal elders face, how programs and benefits for older adults interact with Tribal programs and structures, and offers advocates ways to work in partnership with Tribal leadership to meet the needs of Tribal elders.
• Justice in Aging welcomed the second group of legal services organizations to our cohort program that helps legal services organizations build capacity to advance equity in their work with older adults. We will be sharing lessons learned with the entire network in coming weeks. View the lessons learned from 2022.

Litigation

• In November, a federal court approved our Settlement Agreement in a nationwide class action, Campos v. Kijakazi, which resulted in the automatic waiver of SSI overpayments for thousands of people and the opportunity to seek waivers for hundreds of thousands more SSI beneficiaries who had been assessed overpayments during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Read our fact sheet.
• In January, a federal district court ordered the Biden Administration to stop enforcing an illegal Trump-era rule that ended Medicaid benefits abruptly for thousands nationwide. As a result, class members had their Medicaid benefits restored. Read our fact sheet.
• In April, a federal district court judge approved a settlement agreement requiring the Social Security Administration to extend the time period for when beneficiaries can file an appeal of a reduction or termination of SSI benefits from 10 to 60 days. Read our fact sheet.

We have many ambitious advocacy goals for 2024, including continuing to expand Medicaid eligibility and access to HCBS across the nation, improving care in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, getting Congress to take action to improve the SSI program, increasing investments in affordable, accessible housing for low-income older adults, and continuing to create and push for more equitable policies in all the programs older adults rely on. Stay tuned for more resources, updates, and accomplishments!