"Caregiving is the Crisis Our Leaders Cannot Ignore"

"The Biden Administration?s proposed unfunded staffing mandate for
nursing homes would make the current care shortage older Americans face
even more dire. This latest flashpoint reinforces that federal leaders
must acknowledge the challenges of the workforce crisis and the impact
it?s having on older adults and families.

If enacted as proposed, the mandate would mean nearly 16,000 additional
RNs and more than 75,000 nurse aides would be needed nationwide at a
cost of anywhere between $4.2 and $7.1 billion in the first year?at a
time of well-documented, widely acknowledged shortages of qualified
workers in both those categories.

Congress and governors are rightly concerned. Fifteen governors, led by
Iowa?s Kim Reynolds and Nebraska?s Jim Pillen, sent a Nov. 1 letter
urging the President to ?reconsider his commitment to unfunded mandates
and instead enter into a genuine state-federal dialogue on how best to
serve residents of long-term care facilities in [their] states.? That
follows a slew of activity in Congress, including an Oct. 31 letter to
HHS Secretary Becerra and CMS Administrator Brooks-LaSure that not only
urges the proposal?s withdrawal but also charges CMS with overstepping
?Congress? sole authority to set staffing requirements.? Nearly 100
Congresspeople on Oct. 20 urged CMS to reconsider its proposal due to
grave concerns the proposed mandate will severely limit access to care,
while on Sept. 29 the ?Protecting Rural Seniors Access to Care Act? was
introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to prohibit the nursing
home mandates and create a federal advisory committee on the nursing
home workforce. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan recently spoke out on the
issue, noting that the Congressional Review Act gives the legislative
branch authority to overturn recently enacted federal agency actions if
sufficient support exists."
[snip]

https://leadingage.org/caregiving-is-the-crisis-our-leaders-cannot-
ignore/

Yeah, I know. This lacks the drama of people dying on our streets,
but, if it already isn't killing more people than fentanyl, it will be
soon. OTOH this wasn't a new story when we were children.

All of this inflated "crisis" bullshit reminds me of a marketing
company my wife worked for. Marketing is the art of selling stuff. We do
a lot of marketing in this country. BUT, in that business there are
rarely any real emergencies. My wife worked for a company for whom
everything new was an emergency. She tried to explain to them that when
everything is an emergency, nothing is really an emergency. It didn't
help and she no longer works for them. After a while, if the situation
as been going on for decades it's no longer a crisis. It's just business
as usual.

If we had a real crisis on the border I'm sure the retrumplicans
would be doing something more helpful than sitting on their hands and
engaging in political theater. I'm almost sure we can count on that. lol

TB