Issue Position: Taking Care of Our Seniors and Veterans

Issue Position

We as a Commonwealth owe so much to our senior citizens and veterans, and we must do a better job of taking care of them. As your state rep, I would support the push that would municipalities to adopt a moratorium or freeze on senior property taxes (H.2477). Healthcare costs continue to rise at a rate faster than ever, I would support expanding the state's "circuit breaker" tax credit for seniors. Nursing homes are under an extortionary strain right now and we are seeing caregiving shortages all across the Commonwealth. Caregivers in Massachusetts are extremely underpaid during this public health crisis, I would support measures to raise wages for personal care givers in order to strengthen and expand our workforce (S.358) as well as incentives to construct more senior care facilities for middle class seniors. I would support legislation that focuses on charging the Department of Public Health with developing regulations for "small house nursing homes," units in a larger facility that are "designed and modeled as a private home" for up to 14 individuals (S.363). I would also be in favor of expanding benefits for veterans such as providing free public transportation for them to seek medical care (H.3235) and preserve state benefits for surviving spouses (H.3241).

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