Senior Living Advocates Storm Capitol Hill in Biggest ALFA Fly-In Event Ever

More than 120 ALFA members and senior living advocates from across the nation – from New York to California – left an impressive footprint on Capitol Hill last week with the largest single advocacy event ever held by the Assisted Living Federation of America.
Participants raised awareness of assisted living as a great  long-term care option [...]

Health-Care Bill Secures Senate Vote

The Senate moved the health-care bill closer to passage by approving it with a 60-40 vote on Saturday. The $871 billion package had to overcome a Republican filibuster and Democratic holdouts.
“This is major reform,” White House senior political adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s not perfect. And over time, it [...]

No Place for Union Strikes in
Senior Living

Posted by Paul Williams
Senior Director of Government Relations, ALFA
On Tuesday, the largest transportation union in Philadelphia went on strike over wage, pension, and health-care issues. As a result, thousands of citizens who rely on Philadelphia’s buses, subways, and trolleys were forced to find alternative transportation, and many were unable to do so. For many of [...]

Needed Now: Silver Alert Support

Posted by: Maribeth Bersani – ALFA Senior VP/Public Policy
Earlier this year Congressman Lloyd Doggett from Texas introduced the Silver Alert bill – it passed the House but not the Senate. The original Senate sponsor, Mel Martinez, recently resigned so we need a new champion in the Senate and we need this person quickly.
Currently, 5 million [...]

Talk of EFCA Compromise Surprises Senate Democrats

By Paul Williams, Senior Director of Government Relations, ALFA
This week at the AFL-CIO conference, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) announced that a compromise for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) had been worked out in the Senate, and predicted the legislation would be passed by the end of the year. This caught several key Senate democrats [...]

Long, Hot, Political Summer

The last few weeks have shown us an uptic in political activism at congressional town halls throughout the nation. ALFA encourages members to engage their elected officials, but to do so thoughtfully and with cooler heads than some we’ve seen.

Advocate Now, Provide for the Future

ALFA Update recently covered a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, which says the aging U.S. population could fuel an increased federal deficit. Between now and 2030, the number of adults over the age of 75 will double and the number over 85 will triple. But here’s the challenge: 60 percent of those older adults [...]

What Happens to Mr. Haubner Now?

There was a news story that came out of Fredericksburg, VA, on June 10, 2009, (www.fredericksburg.com) about Larry “Curly” Haubner who at 107 has outlived his savings account. Mr. Haubner had run out of money once before, in 2007, and local citizens raised $56,000 so he could stay in assisted living. Now, he has outlived [...]

Think Ahead! Your Action Plan for the Future Hosted by Nick Bontis, Ph.D.

With wit and enthusiasm, Bontis captivated and enlightened the ALFA General Session audience with his ability to cleverly disguise critical business content with an entertaining delivery. His enlightening and action-packed presentation covered coping with information bombardment, rapid growth and demand, speeding up innovation through collaboration, and achieving industry leading competitiveness.
Nick Bontis cleverly captivated the audience [...]

ALFA’s 2009 Year of the Advocate Reaches Hundreds on the Hill

The Assisted Living Federation of America held its annual advocacy fly on March 31st and it was an overwhelming success. Sixty advocates from across the country came to Capitol Hill and met with over 100 congressional offices. The in-person fly in was supplemented by a virtual fly in that resulted in nearly one thousand messages sent electronically on key issues.