Improving Medicaid Programs and Opportunities for Eligible Beneficiaries Act
Floor Speech
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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Ranking Member Gene Green, for yielding me the time.
I rise in support of H.R. 7217, the IMPROVE Act, and I thank Chairman Walden, Ranking Member Pallone, and Representatives Upton and Guthrie for their leadership in negotiating this important bill and for bringing it to the floor today.
I also thank and acknowledge my dear friend Joe Barton for all of his leadership on the ACE Kids Act and congratulate him on his retirement. Joe has been a great friend to John and me over the years, and he will be dearly missed in the next Congress. Getting the IMPROVE Act signed into the law by the end of the year will be a fitting tribute to his decades of service in the Congress.
Ranking Member Green has also been critical to so many measures. Texas has had two valuable public servants.
Improving long-term care has been one of my top priorities since coming to Congress, and our system is completely broken. We need a broader overhaul of long-term care financing, and we also need to build off existing programs to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure that we are enhancing the opportunities for independent living and supporting aging with dignity.
I am proud to have authored two important provisions in the IMPROVE Act that extend critical programs that are about to expire.
The first is a 3-month extension of the Money Follows the Person program. This very successful program provides grants to States to cover transitional services for individuals who voluntarily wish to leave a nursing home or other institution and transition to a community care setting. Money Follows the Person is a win for both beneficiaries and taxpayers, because the program has demonstrated significant savings over the years while bringing a real benefit to people's lives.
I am also pleased that legislation I authored with the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), my good friend, the Protecting Married Seniors from Impoverishment Act, is also included in this bill. Extending spousal impoverishment protections for seniors in Medicaid is just common sense. Nobody should be forced to spend down all of their resources and have to go bankrupt just to get the care they need.
But these are only partial victories. Both programs are extended for 3 months. This is enough to keep these important programs alive for now, but all of us have a lot of work to do when we come back in the new year.
Let me be clear: I will continue to fight for long-term extensions of both programs in the next Congress, and I am confident that we can get that done with the Democratic majority. These programs clearly have bipartisan support, and they do so much good for so many people.
Once again, congratulations to my two dear friends from Texas for their leadership. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this bill.
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