President Biden’s Executive Order to Expand Access to Long-Term Care and Childcare

On April 18, 2023, President Biden signed an executive order that issued over fifty directives to almost every Cabinet-level agency to expand his constituents’ access to long-term care and childcare.

This executive order is in response to the Administration’s realization that a sizeable majority of families and individuals in the United States who require care cannot access the affordable, high-quality care they require. In his speech, President Biden stated that certain types of long-term care costs have grown over forty percent in the last decade (and over 200 percent in the last thirty years). President Biden continued to state that the order “doesn’t require any new spending” and that “taxpayers will get the value for the investments they’ve already made.”

The President believes that “this is the most comprehensive set of actions any administration has taken to date to increase access to high quality, long-term care and support for care-givers.” The executive order is split into four main sections and subsections, as follows:

1. Policy

It is the policy of Biden’s Administration to enable families – including our military and veteran families – to have access to affordable, high-quality care and support and resources as caregivers themselves. It is also the Administration’s policy to ensure that the care workforce is supported, valued, and paid well. Additionally, care workers should have the free and fair choice to join a union.

2. Increasing compensation and improving job quality for family caregivers, early educators, and long-term care workers

1. to increase compensation and benefits for early childhood educators and long-term care professionals who are providing federally funded services;
2. to improve working conditions and job quality in federally assisted childcare and long-term care programs, encourage providers to establish incentives to recruit and retain workers, help prevent burnout, make it as easy as possible for care workers to access behavioral health services, and thereby improve the care that individuals receive;
3. to expand training pathways and professional learning opportunities to increase job quality, improve quality of care, and attract new entrants into the care workforce;
4. to support family caregivers of beneficiaries of Federal health care programs and services;
5. to improve and expand opportunities through AmeriCorps to encourage more individuals to enter early learning careers;
6. to improve jobs of domestic childcare and long-term care workers;
7. and to improve data and information on the care workforce.

3. Making care more accessible and affordable for families

1. to increase access to affordable high-quality childcare and long-term care for workers delivering federally assisted projects;
2. to lower childcare costs for families eligible for Federal programs;
3. and to help more Federal employees access affordable care.

4. Expanding options for families by building the supply of care

1. to provide families with more options for high-quality long-term, home-based, and community-based care and early learning services;
2. to expand options for quality home-based and community-based services to veterans;
3. to increase the supply of providers and options for families by encouraging greater private financial protection, support, and technical assistance for care providers;
4. to build the capacity of local communities to better coordinate and deliver care;
5. and to make the delivery and design of Federal care assistance and programs work better for families, the care workforce, and people seeking care.

Going forward, President Biden has budgeted $150 billion over the next decade to improve and expand Medicaid home care services, making it easier for seniors and people with disabilities to live, work, and participate in their communities.