Boxer Tries Again for Eldercare Bill (Politico Pulse)
May 31, 2011
Late last week, Sen. Barbara Boxer proposed legislation to address a looming shortfall in the workforce to care for the aging population. The bill is co-sponsored by Aging Committee Chairman Herb Kohl, Bernie Sanders and Republican Susan Collins and is a slimmed-down version of legislation Boxer has introduced in previous congresses. Instead of creating a new loan-repayment program for geriatric professionals, the current version of the Caring for an Aging America Act opens the existing National Health Services Corps to primary care providers with training in geriatric specialties, providing loan repayment for those who agree to work in underserved areas.
The Eldercare Workforce Alliance's Nancy Lundebjerg praised the legislation, but said that more is necessary to address a projected need for an additional 3.5 million eldercare workers by 2030 nationwide. "The field would hope that at some point in time geriatric [professionals] ... would be recognized as having a unique shortage regardless of where they're working," she told PULSE, and pointed us to a dramatic map showing large swaths of the country without geriatricians.
