Supporting Our Seniors Act

This bill creates a national Commission on Long-Term Care to study how to make care more affordable, easier to get at home, and better coordinated for older adults, people with disabilities, and their families. The commission will look at options for people who don’t qualify for Medicaid, ways to help people age in place, support for family caregivers (including possible tax help), and ideas to lower hospital costs by expanding home-based services, including through Medicare and Medicaid. It must share policy recommendations every year with Congress, the President, federal agencies, and the public . Federal agencies that are affected must reply within six months with their plan to act on the recommendations .

The commission has 12 members with experience in areas like hospice, palliative care, senior housing, disability advocacy, and the care workforce. Appointments must be made within 90 days of the law taking effect, the first meeting happens within 60 days after most members are named, and the commission ends 10 years after the law is enacted. It will issue its first recommendations within one year and then yearly after that .

• Who is affected: seniors, adults and children with disabilities, family caregivers, and care workers; plus federal agencies that may need to respond to recommendations .
• What changes: creates a long-term care commission with power to hold hearings, gather information from federal agencies, and publicly share recommendations .
• When: members named within 90 days; first meeting within 60 days after a majority are appointed; first report within one year and annually thereafter; agency responses within six months; commission sunsets after 10 years .