On February 28, 2022, The Biden Administration released their FACT SHEET: Protecting Seniors and People with Disabilities by Improving Safety and Quality of Care in the Nation's Nursing Homes, which prioritizes institutional living over Home and Community Based Services (HCBS). The document discusses at length the fact nursing homes are dangerous places, but aims to justify institutionalization as acceptable if only they were less dangerous.

In reality, institutionalization in nursing homes represents one of the highest levels of deprivation of liberty exerted in our nation. Two years ago, COVID-19 hit the United States, starting with a Kirkland nursing facility in Washington that topped the daily headlines. "In the past two years, more than 200,000 [people consigned ] and staff in nursing [facilities] have died from COVID-19 — nearly a quarter of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States."

Under the 1999 Supreme Court Olmstead decision, people with disabilities have the right to services in the setting most appropriate to meet their needs. Any policy, systems, environmental or programmatic changes regarding people with disabilities, including older adults, must embrace the fundamental liberties guaranteed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the Olmstead decision. Olmstead upheld that people with disabilities have the right to receive services in the setting most appropriate to their needs.

This fact sheet flies in the face of the Olmstead decision and the protections of the ADA. After two horrific years in which nursing facilities were the epicenter of the pandemic, we cannot support making nursing institutions “great again.”

This fact sheet and its outline to "make facilities better" does not resonate with the Disability Community; rather, it outrages us. Although there is a need for monitoring and enforcement, the Administration has missed the mark entirely on what Disabled and older adults stuck in institutions really want, which is freedom in the community with adequate services and supports to maintain and sustain independence. It erases the work of community living organizations and activists that sought solutions, such as nursing home relocation and transition services, for decades.

This plan highlights one thing that does resonate with us, which is that the Administration, government, and the healthcare system continue to demonstrate that they will always care more about profit and money than they do about the people, and more specifically, than they do about Disabled people.

For months, President Biden and members of Congress prioritized a major expansion of HCBS in the Build Back Better bill. The fact sheet makes it clear that the Administration has abandoned this priority. Instead, the Administration is actively contributing to the profit-driven narrative that these dangerous, isolating, and undesirable places can be made less perilous.

We urge the Administration to recommit to their promises to the Disability Community by investing in HCBS and in resources and supports that people with disabilities need to live in the community. The Administration’s commitment to equity can only be fulfilled when it includes unwavering enforcement of the civil rights of people with disabilities.

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