Legislative Priorities

Maine Council on Aging
131st Maine Legislative Priorities & Actions

The Maine Council on Aging is a broad, multi-disciplinary network of businesses, organizations and older Mainers that advances policy initiatives to ensure we can all live healthy, engaged, and secure lives as we age in our homes and community settings. Our broad and on-going priorities include:

  • Promoting age-equity and the equitable delivery services
  • Strengthening Maine’s direct care workforce across all settings
  • Increasing housing and home repair options
  • Growing transportation options and funding
  • Expanding access to supports and services
  • Promoting integrated and coordinated care, with special focus on people living with dementia and their care partners
  • Increasing the food and financial stability of older Mainers
  • Supporting local, statewide, and regional initiatives that support healthy aging

2023 Advocacy Priorities

  • Equity & Aging
    We have embarked on a bold initiative to end ageism in Maine by 2032! We will do this by operationalizing the Plan for Equity in Aging in Maine and expanding our Power in Aging Project. Specifically, we’ll engage decisions-makers at every level to apply an age-equity lens to decision making processes. We will engage new and different kinds of leaders in the Leadership Exchange on Ageism (LEA) and create a train-the-trainer program to allow LEA to be replicated. We will lead and join efforts to build equitable systems of care and service delivery to ensure older BIPOC and LGBTQ people can access
    supports and services in ways that meet their needs.
  • Core Supports & Services
    We will promote the Elder Economic Security Index as the appropriate index to use for eligibility for programs aimed at helping lower income older people gain access to supports and services. We will use data to advocate for increased investments in core supports and services.
  • Direct Care Workforce
    We will continue lead efforts to ensure older Mainers can gain access to quality direct care at home and in residential care. A focus will be on establishing the numbers of workers needed, understanding the market forces at play in driving workers to these jobs, and building quality into the jobs.
  • Integrated & Coordinated Services
    We will engage in statewide efforts to build an integrated system of formal and informal supports and care that prioritizes low cost/high value interventions and that builds across all systems.
  • Affordable Housing Options
    While we will continue to work to expand affordable housing options for older Mainers. We will work to increase federal funding for home modifications connected to weatherization funding.
  • Growing Transportation Options
    We will participate in statewide efforts to increase public transit options in Maine. We will sit at many transportation tables and lead efforts through our Transportation Equity for Older Mainers initiative.
  • Care Partners
    We will be an active partner in the Healthy Brain Initiative, in updating and implementing Maine’s State
    Plan for Alzheimer’s & Related Dementias, and in Maine’s new Respite pilot program.

Testimony - 131st - 1st Session

LD 1976 – An Act to Update the Growth Management Program Laws

131st Legislature – 1st Session Report

LD 2 – An Act to Address Maine’s Housing Crisis

LD 3 – An Act to Establish the Winter Energy Relief Payment Program to Aid Residents with High Heating Costs and to Finalize the COVID Pandemic Relief Payment Program

LD 34 – An Act to An Act to Require a Person to Show Photographic Identification for the Purpose of Voting

LD 99 – An Act to Clarify the Allowable Temperature Range in Certain Long-term Care Facilities

LD 199 – An Act to Improve the Health of Maine Residents by Removing Exclusions to the MaineCare Program

LD 208 – An Act Concerning Home Care Services

LD 300 – An Act to Establish Pilot Initiatives to Promote, Grow and Sustain Adult Day Care and Respite Programs in Maine

LD 464 – An Act to Eliminate Waiting Lists for Community-based Services for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability, Brain Injury or Other Related Conditions

LD 564 – An Act to Improve Access to Civil Legal Services

LD 587 – Resolve, to Automatically Increase a Residential Care or Nursing Facility Resident’s Personal Needs Allowance Under the MaineCare Program When the Consumer Price Index Increases

LD 709 – An Act to Support Home Share Programming for Seniors

LD 824 – Resolve, Directing the Department of Health and Human Services to Review Reimbursement Rates for Nursing Facilities on Islands

LD 1037 – An Act to Fund Competitive Wages for Direct Support Professionals for Persons with Disabilities

LD 1238 – An Act to Require Reporting on the Percentage of Approved Care Being Delivered to Individuals

LD 1339 – Resolve, to Establish the Task Force to Study Forming the Maine Commission on Disabilities

LD 1412 – RESOLUTION, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine Establishing That All Maine Residents Have Equal Rights Under the Law

LD 1521 – An Act to Support the Essential Support Workforce by Promoting Enhanced Reimbursement and Benefits and Encouraging Information Sharing

LD 1522 – An Act to Provide Economic Justice to Historically Disadvantaged Older Citizens by Amending the Laws Governing the Medicare Savings Program – Testimony

LD 1522 – An Act to Provide Economic Justice to Historically Disadvantaged Older Maine People – Talking Points 

LD 1544 – An Act to Improve Economic Security for Maine Children by Establishing the Maine Dependent Tax Credit

LD 1684 – An Act to Invest in the Health and Wellness of Older Maine Residents by Expanding Coordinated Community Programming

LD 1718 – An Act to Encourage Participation in Maine’s Essential Support Workforce Through Access to Higher Education

LD 1573 Recommendations of the Commission to Study Long-Term Care Workforce Issues

If not now, when will we invest in Maine’s Essential Support Workforce?

We urge you to fully fund LD 1573 An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Commission To Study Long-term Care Workforce Issues in the FY22/23 Biennial Budget

It’s time to value and invest in the tens of thousands of Maine workers who provide vital daily supports and services to older people, people with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities, and people with behavioral health challenges, to ensure they thrive in their homes and community settings.

Read Yvonne’s Story Here

Learn more here: 

LD 1573 Fact Sheet Final

LD 1573 Sign-on FINAL

Portland Press Herald Ad LD 1573

 

Testimony - 130th - 2nd Session

Testimonies - 130th - 1st Session

Read our testimony submitted in support or opposition to pending bills for the 130th Legislature:

 

MCOA Introduction to the 130th Joint Standing Committee on Health & Human Services

LD 17 – Resolve, To Provide Rural Nonmedical Transportation Services to the Elderly and Adults with Disabilities Receiving Home and Community Benefits under the MaineCare Program

LD 72 – An Act to Improve Dental Health for Maine Children and Adults With Low Incomes

LD 86 – An Act To Make Sales to Area Agencies on Aging Tax-exempt

LD 120 – An Act To Lower Health Care Costs through the Establishment of the Office of Affordable Health Care

LD 166 – An Act To Allow Participants in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary Program To Qualify for MaineCare Transportation Services

LD 221 – 2021-2023 Biennial Budget

LD 253 – An Act To Strengthen Maine’s Election Laws by Requiring Photographic Identification for the Purpose of Voting

LD 296 – An Act to Create the Family Caregiver Grant Pilot Program

LD 423 – An Act to Improve Access to Bariatric Care in Nursing Homes

LD 441  An Act to Expand Adult Dental Health Insurance Coverage

LD 499 – An Act To Eliminate the Waiting Lists for Older and Disabled
Residents Who Are Eligible To Receive Home-based Care

LD 557 – An Act To Require Photographic Identification for the Purpose of Voting

LD 609 – Resolve, To Establish a Commission To Increase
Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions

LD 652 – An Act To Include an Emergency Reimbursement Rate Review Process in Rate Setting by the Department of Health and Human Services

LD 686 – An Act to Increase Prescription Drug Pricing Transparency

LD 786 – Resolve, Requiring the Departments of Labor and Education to Create an Educational Program for Direct Care Workers

LD 878 – Resolve to Increase MaineCare Reimbursement Rates for
Services Provided by Direct Care Workers

LD 886 – Resolve, To Encourage Employment in the Direct Care Workforce

LD 898 – An Act to Provide Incentives to Unemployed to Become Part of the Caregiver Workforce

LD 949 – Resolve, To Restore the MaineCare Nursing Facility COVID-19 Temporary Rate Increase

LD 958 – Resolve Directing the Department of Health and Human Services
to Conduct a Review of Rules Governing In-home Personal Care Assistance Services

LD 996 – An Act to Improve Dental Health Access for Maine Children and Adults with Low Incomes

LD 1117 – An Act to Prevent Excessive Prices for Prescription Drugs

LD 1136 – An Act to Promote Fairness in Income Tax Rates by Making Them More Progressive

LD 1148 – Resolve, To Increase Broadband Access in Private Nonmedical
Institutions (PNMIs)

LD 1197 – Resolve, To Require Continued MaineCare Reimbursement to
Nursing Facilities for Bed Hold Days during Hospitalizations and Therapeutic Leaves of Absence

LD 1386 – Resolve, To Improve Access to Bariatric Care

LD 1443 – An Act Regarding Higher Income Tax Levels

LD 1524 – An Act to Amend the Maine Exclusion Amount in the Estate Tax

LD 1547 – An Act To Promote Intergovernmental Coordination Regarding Age-friendly State Initiatives

LD 1500 – An Act to Bring Equity to Maine’s Tax Laws by Adjusting Certain Individual Income Tax Rates

LD 1557 Resolve, To Create the Commission to Develop a Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits Program

LD 1573 – An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Commission
To Study Long-term Care Workforce Issues

LD 1622 – An Act To Promote Individual Retirement Savings through a Public-Private Partnership

LD 1624 – Resolve to Create a Stakeholder Group to Identify the Needs of
Long-term Care Family Caregivers

LD 1638 – An Act To Help Seniors and Certain Persons with Disabilities Remain in Their Homes by Providing for the Deferral of Property Taxes

LD 1677 – An Act To Support Frontline Workers by Adding a Temporary Tax Bracket Affecting High Earners

LD 1733 – An Act To Provide Allocation for the Distribution of State Fiscal Recovery Funds

Past Successes

MCOA is proud to have a substantial record of success. We invite you to read about the impact we’ve made in recent history!