On Monday, March 5, the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services held their first hearing on the Governor’s proposed budget.
The hearing included substantive discussion of a LeadingAge California-supported measure seeking to add additional questions to the California Health Interview Survey so that the state can collect more meaningful data on LTSS access and utilization.
Doctor Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), chair of the budget subcommittee, strongly supported the measure in the hearing, stating the aging trends in the state will lead to more individuals needing to access care.
LeadingAge California has been instrumental in leading the charge to find a viable option for financing LTSS in the state. The past several years, we have been facilitating stakeholder meetings with various interested parties throughout the state, seeking to find a solution to the problem of how middle class families will pay for long-term care.
While we have made some strides passing legislation that deals with some of the shortfalls in our current system, we believe that changes that are more significant are needed.
We believe that the first step in this process is to collect meaningful data that shows who is currently accessing LTSS, who is relying on unpaid caregiving and where the holes are in our current system. We will continue to strongly support this measure as it moves throughout the budget process.