On December 9, Argentum’s Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Maggie Elehwany, met with U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, to reinforce a critical message: senior living is an essential part of the long-term care continuum, and federal policy should support the providers, caregivers, and families who rely on it.
The discussion centered on practical, bipartisan ways to reduce financial strain on families caring for aging loved ones, starting with targeted tax policy reforms that reflect the realities of caregiving today.
A Growing Caregiving Challenge
Across the country, millions of adult children help coordinate and pay for care-related needs for their parents, everything from medical appointments and prescriptions to services and supports that help older adults live safely and with dignity. But in many cases, the tax code treats these out-of-pocket caregiving expenses as if they’re someone else’s responsibility.
One example: tax-advantaged accounts like Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) are designed to help individuals pay for qualified medical expenses with pre-tax dollars. Yet adult children typically can’t use these accounts for a parent’s eligible medical expenses unless the parent qualifies as a dependent for tax purposes, a threshold many families don’t meet, even when they are providing meaningful support.
That disconnect is exactly what Argentum and Senator Cassidy discussed in the context of bipartisan legislation that would modernize these rules.
Supporting the Lowering Costs for Caregivers Act
During the meeting, Elehwany reiterated Argentum’s support for the Lowering Costs for Caregivers Act of 2025, bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate by Chairman Cassidy and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV).
In plain terms, the bill aims to let families use pre-tax dollars to help cover certain medical expenses for their parents, even when those parents aren’t classified as dependents. That change could be meaningful for caregivers trying to manage rising costs while also balancing work and their own household responsibilities.
Argentum’s perspective is straightforward: policies that recognize and reduce the financial burden on family caregivers can help stabilize the broader long-term care ecosystem, including the senior living communities that serve residents and support families every day.
Using Savings Tools for Long-term Care Needs
The meeting also explored a broader concept that continues to gain traction in long-term care policy conversations: allowing additional federally tax-incentivized savings vehicles to be used for long-term care needs.
Specifically, Elehwany raised the importance of giving families more flexibility to use accounts such as 529 savings plans to meet long-term care needs, without triggering unnecessary taxes or penalties.
Today, 529 plans are generally structured around education-related qualified expenses, which limits their usefulness when families face significant long-term care costs later in life. Argentum has consistently emphasized that families need more tools, not fewer, to plan for and pay for aging-related needs. Creating sensible flexibility in how Americans can use their own tax-advantaged savings is one option policymakers can evaluate as part of a larger, long-term care modernization agenda.
Why the Cassidy-Carrollton Visit Matters
This Capitol Hill discussion followed a previous visit by Chairman Cassidy to The Carrollton, a senior living community in New Orleans, where he spent time with residents and senior living leaders. Reports from the visit highlighted meaningful resident engagement and firsthand perspective on why senior living is a valued option for older adults and their families.
For policymakers, community visits like this can be pivotal. They put real faces and stories to the policies debated in Washington, showing how senior living supports quality of life, promotes independence where possible, and provides peace of mind for families navigating complex care decisions.
Importantly, these conversations also underscore a key priority for Argentum: protecting senior living from unintended federal overreach that could add unnecessary administrative burden, increase costs, or reduce flexibility without improving outcomes.
Advancing Smart Policy for Senior Living and Families
Argentum will continue engaging with Congressional leaders on commonsense policies that:
- Recognize the realities of modern caregiving
- Reduce out-of-pocket pressure on families
- Support a sustainable long-term care infrastructure
- Preserve access and choice for older adults
As part of that effort, Argentum encourages members and stakeholders to stay connected to advocacy updates and opportunities to help educate policymakers about the value of senior living, especially through community visits that bring the impact of policy to life. These visits allow policymakers to hear directly from you, your employees and your residents, so they can better understand the challenges you face and see and why strengthening the senior living model is so important to our nation’s aging population. The Community Visits with Lawmakers Toolkit provides you with the tools you need to set up effective conversations with legislators at one of your communities.
To keep this momentum moving, we also encourage senior living leaders to join Argentum in Washington, DC for the Argentum Public Policy Fly-In, February 24–25, 2026. This reimagined advocacy experience is designed to give attendees direct access to congressional teams, sharpen your policy message, and help elevate the voices of residents, families, and frontline teams on Capitol Hill.