Federal Advocacy Update: What We’re Fighting For on Capitol Hill

End-of-life care shouldn’t be a privilege determined by geography, income or access to providers. That’s the principle driving Compassion & Choices’ federal advocacy. 

In a new video briefing, our federal policy team breaks down the vision, the policy landscape and the legislation we’re actively pursuing — and opposing — in the 119th Congress.

Our federal agenda starts with a simple belief: your ZIP code should never determine your access to care. That means expanding palliative care (medical care for people with serious or advanced illnesses focused on providing relief from pain and other symptoms) training for providers, integrating end-of-life care into emergency services, making telehealth a permanent fixture of the system and ensuring medical aid in dying is available to all eligible patients as part of the gold standard of care.

It also means prioritizing advance care planning for every American, including dementia-specific advance directives and supporting emerging therapies like psychedelic-assisted therapy with rigorous oversight.

The regulatory environment is also shifting, and the stakes are high. Compassion & Choices secured hard-won telehealth expansions during the pandemic and we’re now fighting to make them permanent. 

At the same time, proposed changes to tele-prescribing rules could restrict the ability of hospice providers to remotely prescribe medications essential to palliative care. Our teams are submitting formal comments and engaging agencies directly to protect access to care.

Since the start of the 119th Congress, our federal team has met with staff from more than 100 Congressional offices and directly with more than 31 Representatives and Senators. Our high-priority legislative agenda includes:

• The CONNECT for Health Act — permanent Medicare telehealth expansion
• The Credit for Caring Act — a tax credit for working family caregivers
• The Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention Act — Medicare coverage for blood-based dementia screening tests
• Bills expanding palliative care education, advance directive completion, and hospice access for veterans

We’re also actively opposing the BOWSER Act and HR 7196, which would open the door to repealing Washington D.C.’s Death With Dignity Act — and monitoring another attempt to do the same through the federal budgeting process.

This work doesn’t happen in isolation. We’ve built coalitions with partners across the ideological spectrum, and we’re intentional about ensuring our advocacy reaches every community.

Sign up to volunteer with Compassion & Choices to learn how you can be part of this work.