1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

For three sessions now, constituent families across the country have worked to get a bill filed in Congress to prevent the months of isolation that long-term care residents endured in 2020 in the event their federal right to 24/7 in-person access is again paused or restricted due to a health, safety, weather, public welfare or other emergency. We are looking for help from our Congressional House and Senate members to cosponsor HR6766 and S3492 and those elected officials on the health subcommittees to get the bill to markup and help move the bill toward a vote. This bill would allow each long-term care resident in a Medicaid or Medicare funded facility in-person access to a caregiver of the resident’s or resident representative’s choosing provided the facility’s health and safety protocols are met. The bill strikes a balance between the resident’s necessity for physical and emotional support and the facility’s requisite to protect the health and safety of all residents. We are not lobbyists, not funded by anyone, not a 501c3, we are simply family members who have or had loved ones living in long-term care facilities, many of whom lived or died in those facilities during the isolation protocols put in place during the pandemic. We are nobodies. Not attorneys, not politicians. Just families in every state that came together for a common purpose. We need the help of our representatives on the health subcommittees who know how the process works so we don’t see our efforts die for a third session. We are apolitical and have worked very hard to get a four-corners bill that is both fair and passable. Please cosponsor this bill and use your influence in committees to prevent our six years and third effort in Congress from dying the way so many of our family members did, forgotten and overlooked.