A State Leader in Long Term Care

Why do so many senior citizens support Dawn?

One reason is Dawn's tireless work for property tax relief. But just as importantly, seniors support Dawn for leading Washington to a brighter long term care future that respects the rights, dignity and independence of senior citizens and disabled citizens.

She's achieving results: That's why Dawn was selected to serve as the Chair of the Governor's Task Force on Long Term Care.

It was Dawn who authored and led into law the historic 2008 Aging in Place Reforms. Listen to what the Senior Citizens Lobby, AARP Washington, the State Council on Aging and Eldercare Alliance said about Dawn's law:

“The Aging in Place long-term care bill, HB2668, is a high level and urgent priority for each of our four organizations. As we age, Washingtonians want to remain at home and in our own communities. This bill will prevent disease and harmful injuries that lead to hospitalizations and subsequent nursing home admissions while at the same time bolstering support for informal (unpaid) family care giving.”

It was also Dawn who led passage of Washington's Long-term Care Insurance Reforms, to make insurance more fair and secure for seniors and people with disabilities. Her leadership earned high praise from Mike Kreidler, Washington's Insurance Commissioner:

“Rep. Dawn Morrell showed tremendous leadership in working to adopt these national long-term care insurance standards. ... This legislation provides much-needed consumer protections while streamlining the regulatory environment.

Year after year, Dawn has united a nurse's compassion with a leader's effectiveness to gets real results.

Improving Home Care

Dawn wrote the state law that carried out the people's Home Care Initiative (I-775), which gave health benefits, injured worker protection and a raise to 26,000 home care workers.

Helping more seniors to get good long term care in the comfort of their own homes remains a top priority for Dawn as Chair of the long term care task force. High quality home care is a win-win—Seniors prefer it and it's less costly to taxpayers than nursing home care.

Working for Community Care

When home care is not enough, a strong continuum of caring is needed to help people in their communities. Dawn is working successfully for good state policies and support for adult family homes, boarding homes, day health services and other vital facets of community-centered care. Her 2005 proposal for quality assurance and coordinated quality improvement plans for boarding homes and nursing homes passed the House and Senate unanimously!

Working to improve safety and quality in nursing homes

Washington has dramatically reduced the share of long-term care provided in nursing homes. But nursing homes remain an important part of a continuum of long term care, and Dawn is working to make them as safe, compassionate and effective as possible.

In 2005, Dawn led the successful effort to increase the modest personal needs allowance for state-funded nursing home residents, which had been neglected for many years.

In 2006, she helped fight to end the Nursing Home Bed Tax, which adds up to over $1,900 a year per bed and hurts many private-paying nursing home residents. We won! The tax ended in 2007! She also supports improved funding for nursing home quality and has helped Washington earn a 100% federal match of our efforts!

Passionate and Effective

As a critical care nurse, Dawn saw how quality long term care can make a tremendous difference to health and the quality of life. She also saw that helping people to stay healthy can long delay the need (and taxpayers costs!) for long term care, and is working to improve health for people of all ages as Vice Chair of the House Health Care Committee.

The record is clear: Dawn is as effective as she is passionate about leading for good long-term care. It's another reason why so many senior citizens and people with disabilities support Dawn Morrell!