SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Today, Sen. Daniel Biss and Rep. Chris Welch joined advocates at a press conference in the Capitol Blue Room to discuss new legislation to create a sustainable and new benefit, similar to Social Security, to ensure the aging community and people with disabilities don't fall through the cracks.
“Here’s the question we need to be asking: in a world where the population is aging, what is our responsibility to one another?” began Daniel Biss. “Should we act as though the aging population is, itself, a crisis? Should we hope that families will, on their own, be able to care for their aging loved ones—for their parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles? Or should we, instead, come together as a community and decide jointly that every person has a human right to age with dignity near their family and in their community?”
“That is the right thing to do, that is what Illinois residents want us to do, that is the moral thing to do, and that is what each of us wants for our own aging relatives. Let us make sure that we provide a universal system of care for individuals with disabilities as well—let us view these as part and parcel of the same fundamental rights. SB2976 seeks to move us swiftly towards that outcome.”
“SB2976 creates a right in Illinois to access to long term care,” Daniel continued. “It recognizes the fundamental human value at stake here, recognizes the technical challenges that we need to overcome to get from here to there, and begins walking us down that path.”
