Long Term Care Organizations Praise Introduction of Gutierrez-Flake Immigration Reform Legislation
Bipartisan House Bill Seeks to Achieve a Reasonable,
Realistic Immigration Policy
Contact:
Donna Doneski, AHCA/NCAL, (202) 898-6321
For Immediate Release
March 26, 2007
Washington, DC –The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) today praised the introduction of the bipartisan Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy (STRIVE) Act (H.R. 1645) by U.S. Representatives Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ).
“America is a stronger nation because of the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of millions of immigrants who have arrived on our shores for hundreds of years. Now we need reasonable and realistic immigration reform laws to help us ensure a chronic staffing problem in our long term care facilities does not become a national health care catastrophe,” stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA/NCAL. “While we are still in the process of reviewing this bill in its entirety, we are wholly supportive of its guest worker and nursing shortage language, and we commend Congressmen Gutierrez and Flake for introducing this significant immigration legislation.”
Yarwood noted that America’s health care system, in particular, is straining due to a shortage of key caregivers necessary to care for a rapidly aging population. From the standpoint of long term care, he said facilities nationwide are ready, willing, and able to offer tens of thousands of good-paying jobs that, if filled, will help continue improving the quality of seniors’ care in nursing homes.
“It is an undeniable that many of the jobs being created by America’s economy are jobs American citizens simply are not filling – in fact, jobs no one is filling,” continued Yarwood. “Our laws, therefore, should allow willing workers to enter our country to help fill this void after all security concerns have been satisfied.”
The high demand for long term care workers is already documented by the federal government as well as by AHCA/NCAL. A recent study by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Labor (DoL) estimates the U.S. will need between 5.7 million and 6.5 million nurses, nurse aides, home health and personal care workers by 2050 to care for the 27 million Americans who will require long term care – up over 100% from the 13 million citizens requiring long term care in 2000.
In addition, a recent AHCA study examining staff vacancy rates in our nation’s nursing homes found approximately 52,000 Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) are needed immediately – just to meet existing demand for care.
“We are especially interested in seeing a bill that would codify the specific need to fill key, frontline caregiving positions,” Yarwood continued. “As we look ahead, we believe a comprehensive approach to immigration reform is preferable to piecemeal, industry-specific efforts that have not worked in the past,” Yarwood concluded.
The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) represents nearly 11,000 non-profit and proprietary facilities dedicated to continuous improvement in the delivery of professional and compassionate care provided daily by millions of caring employees to 1.5 million of our nation’s frail, elderly and disabled citizens who live in nursing facilities, assisted living residences, subacute centers and homes for persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. For more information, please visit www.ahca.org.