Care for Our Elders

Healthcare is a human right, and we must ensure that as people age we meet their changing needs. We will pass Medicare for All and guarantee seniors can receive all their medical needs, including dental care, hearing aids, prescription drugs, and long-term home care free of cost through a single payer system. We will provide accessible housing and services for our aging neighbors, including the Social Security benefits they’ve spent their entire lives investing in. And we will take care of the workers taking care of America’s senior citizens.

Long-Term Home Care

The Medicare for All bill will guarantee long-term home care for elders or people with disabilities who need care. Those who do not want to enter an institution will be guaranteed the freedom to continue their lives in their home.

Restore the Voting Rights Act

Too many seniors are displaced from their own homes by their changing abilities as they age. Through the Homes Guarantee, I am committed to pursuing new construction of millions of homes that are built to be sustainable, affordable, safe, and accessible so more people can grow old in their homes. This is a matter of justice for people living with disabilities of any age, but especially for those who have roots in a community and wish to stay there.

Fund Services for Seniors

It’s time we as a country pay back the people who worked the hardest to build this country. I support Bernie Sanders’ Older American Act, which will fund services for seniors such as Meals on Wheels and seniors centers that can provide meals, health services, education, and community.

Protect Pensions

Wall Street will loot the pensions of workers over my dead body. We will reverse The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, which allows companies to cut pensions. We will keep companies on the hook for their pensions and not allow them to shed their responsibilities if they go bankrupt. In the cases where employers go bankrupt and cannot pay pensions, the federal government will step in to guarantee workers receive the pensions they earned.

Take Care of Our Care Workers

Care workers do some of the most vital work in our society and we do not take care of them. Here in Texas these workers make $8 an hour with no benefits. We will ensure that care workers make $20/hour by 2022, receive health-care and paid time off, and provide free training for workers who are entering this field. We will make sure Medicare for All pays all care workers through a single program, and that all care workers are able to unionize.

We know that much care work is done unpaid by family members, and that this work falls predominantly on working class women and women of color. We support the Social Security Caregiver Credit Act, which will properly pay the tens of millions of Americans who do unpaid care work for relatives.