AONN+ Joins Organizations in Letter to President on Reinstatement of Pandemic Paid Sick and Family Leave

CRANBURY, N.J., Feb. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) joined many patient and caregiver advocacy groups in writing to President Biden and urging the reinstatement of emergency paid sick and family leave time in a possible COVID supplemental relief package.

Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) in March 2020, under which private employers that have fewer than 500 employees can receive tax credits for the cost of providing employees with paid leave taken for pandemic-related reasons. The FFCRA paid sick and family leave mandates expired on Dec. 31, 2020. After that date, employers are no longer required to provide employees with paid leave but may voluntarily choose to do so and receive tax credits through March 31, 2021.

As the Biden Administration considers requesting a supplemental spending package that includes additional COVID relief, advocacy groups urge the president to include in the request the reinstatement of guaranteed emergency paid sick and family caregiving leave similar to the mandates in FFCRA.

According to the letter circulated by the groups, the reinstatement will ensure that individuals with serious illnesses who are exposed to or contract COVID-19 and their caregivers do not have to forfeit income in order to treat their illness, protect themselves from exposure, or get a vaccine or booster that will provide robust protection.

More than 30 groups and organizations signed the letter, representing patients with serious illnesses and conditions including cancer, ALS, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, hemophilia, Alzheimer's, Long COVID, and many others.

The full letter can be viewed here:

February 3, 2022
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:
As the Administration continues to address the COVID-19 pandemic and considers requesting a supplemental spending package that includes additional COVID relief, we write today to urge you to include in the request the reinstatement of guaranteed emergency paid sick and family caregiving leave for all U.S. workers, similar to what was passed in the bipartisan Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) at the beginning of this health crisis. This would ensure that individuals with serious illnesses who are exposed to or contract COVID-19 and their caregivers do not have to forfeit income in order to treat their illness, protect themselves from exposure, or get a vaccine or booster that will provide robust protection.

The 20 undersigned patient advocacy and partner organizations represent patients with serious illnesses and conditions including cancer, ALS, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, hemophilia, Alzheimer's, Long COVID and many others. We represent people whose health conditions and whose loved ones with serious health conditions have a special interest in ensuring that people with pre-existing conditions can keep themselves safe as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. We came together earlier this year to advocate for a national paid family and medical leave program and we remain committed to seeing that through in the Build Back Better reconciliation bill and beyond. We strongly believe that being able to take time off work is fundamentally an access to care issue, and our current patchwork system of paid and unpaid leave forces some patients and caregivers to choose between treating their illness and keeping their job or having enough income to survive – while also exacerbating health inequities.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 33 million Americans lacked a single day of paid sick time they could use for themselves or to care for a sick family member. Today, the share of the workforce without access to paid sick time and extended family and medical leave remains largely unchanged. With the latest surge of the Omicron variant and the expectation of variants that will follow, it is essential that we move quickly and ensure that anyone who needs to stay home from work because they or their family member is ill or has been exposed to COVID-19 can do so without having to fear for their job or lost wages. This is even more critical to individuals with serious illnesses and caregivers given their heightened risk for COVID-19. Without access to paid sick time, these individuals and their caregivers cannot easily follow CDC guidance to isolate or quarantine without risking their ability to support their families or keep their jobs.

Reinstating guaranteed emergency paid sick and family caregiving leave makes sense not only in the context of the current Omicron variant, but for the duration of the pandemic. Despite significant coverage gaps, FCCRA enabled millions of Americans to access paid sick time and is estimated to have prevented more than 400 cases of COVID-19 per day per state – or more than 15,000 infections nationwide – and if more variants indeed materialize, paid sick and family care leave for COVID could be expected to prevent even more cases.

Our organizations have long fought to ensure that patients have access to care to treat their serious illnesses and health conditions. We view paid sick time and family and medical leave as a core access to care issue and we are committed to working with you as we tackle the public health crisis confronting our nation.

Thank you for considering our requests. If you have any questions or would like to talk with our representatives, please direct your staff to contact Jennifer Hoque at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network at [email protected].

Sincerely,
AARP
Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators
The AIDS Institute
Alliance for Aging Research
Alpha-1 Foundation
The ALS Association
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
American Heart Association
The Arc of the United States
Association for Clinical Oncology
Association of Oncology Social Work
Cancer Support Community
Cervivor, Inc.
Child Neurology Foundation
COVID Survivors for Change
Epilepsy Foundation
Family Voices
Friends of Cancer Research
Hemophilia Federation of America Livestrong
March of Dimes
The Mended Hearts, Inc.
Muscular Dystrophy Association
National Alliance for Caregiving
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
National Health Council
National Hemophilia Foundation
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
National Organization for Rare Disorders
National Patient Advocate Foundation
Pulmonary Hypertension Association
Susan G. Komen
Triage Cancer
UsAgainstAlzheimer's
WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women
with Heart Disease
ZERO - The End of Prostate Cancer

About the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators, Inc. (AONN+)
The Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators, Inc. (AONN+), is the largest national specialty organization dedicated to improving patient care and quality of life by defining, enhancing, and promoting the role of oncology nurse and patient navigators. The organization, which has more than 8900 members, was founded in 2009 to provide a network for all professionals involved and interested in patient navigation and survivorship care services in order to better manage the complexities of the cancer treatment process. http://www.aonnonline.org.

About Amplity Medical Communications
Amplity Medical Communications, formerly The Lynx Group, is a premier medical communications and education company acutely focused on oncology and rare disease states. Amplity Medical Communications specializes in market access to and with advanced practice providers, patients, and their caregivers. With more than 100 years of combined senior leadership experience, Amplity Medical Communications continually creates award-winning medical education and cultivates strong relationships within proprietary brands serving patients and their caregivers, physicians, payers, nurses, pharmacists, navigators, and practice managers. Currently, Amplity Medical Communications partners with more than 50 of the top pharma and biotech companies globally.

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SOURCE Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+)