Baldwin Working to Provide Child Care and Elder Care to Health Care Workers to Help Respond to Coronavirus Outbreak

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) helped introduce legislation with Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Jack Reed (D-RI) to assist health care workers with child and elder care so that they can continue to treat patients during the coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic. The Helping Health Care Workers Afford Child and Elder Care Act provides payments to eligible health care workers and lab technicians in need of child care or elder care support and will help them work additional hours to treat an anticipated surge in patients with COVID-19.

“As the coronavirus continues to spread throughout Wisconsin, we must support our health care and lab workers so they can continue to combat this public health emergency,” said Senator Baldwin. “This legislation will provide child care and elder care resources to our health care workers on the frontlines of this pandemic so they can continue serving patients and saving lives.”

School closures and closures of senior centers have complicated shift work for health care workers who now need to find child care or elder care support during their regularly-scheduled shifts. With the need for extra shift work likely to intensify in the coming weeks and months as health care providers prepare for a surge of patients, and given that the length of school and senior center closures remains uncertain, Congress needs to provide support for health care workers to afford child and elder care.

The Helping Health Care Workers Afford Child and Elder Care Act ensures that frontline health care workers can continue to serve patients in need as efforts continue to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation provides $5 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide payments to support eligible health care workers who have a certified need for child care and elder care support.

The full text of the legislation is available here.