Texas Democrats believe elderly and disabled Texans of all ages should have access to long-term services and supports that promote independent living in the most-integrated setting possible. A robust continuum of long-term services and supports includes state supported living centers, home and community-based services, in-home health care, adult daycare, and hospice care. We believe the state must comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and strongly oppose the Republican claim to “sovereign immunity” from the ADA.

We support:

• transitioning the long-term care system to focus on home and community-based services (HCBS);
• creating a national HCBS program where funding for services “follows the person”;
• fully funding all HCBS programs and ending all waiting lists for community services;
• protecting individual homesteads from repossession when recovering the costs of long-term care;
• providing elderly and disabled Texans with choices about where they want to live and receive support services;
• coordination of accessible, affordable, integrated housing and other support services including personal assistance and caregiver services, homemaker assistance, respite care, home-delivered meals, and transportation,
• establishing registry of direct service and providers and developing a training and certification program that interfaces with other similar initiatives;
• access to non-medical services to contain cost and allow greater individual control;
• providing a living wage and health care benefits for all direct care workers.