Monthly Archive for January, 2007

Working with Governor Rendell on Health Insurance Reform

Published
by
atoleos
on January 17, 2007
in Pennsylvania
. 0 Comments

Governor Ed Rendell unveiled a health care reform plan - Cover All Pennsylvanians - that could make health insurance available to about 1 million Pennsylvanians who lack coverage. The governor wants to develop a program similar to an expansion he proposed for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which fully subsidizes health insurance for children from low-income families and makes coverage available to other children for fees based on their family income. Details are available from the Governor’s Office of Health Care Reform.Under the proposed plan, health insurance would be subsidized for workers who earn less than three times the federal poverty level. The average wage for a direct-care worker in Pennsylvania is $9 an hour, which falls within that window. The governor’s plan also addresses those in this income bracket who live with chronic conditions such as diabetes and back injuries, which plague thousands of the state’s direct-care workers.

HCHCW Pennsylvania is working to ensure that the proposal meets the needs of direct-care workers and their employers.

Text of the bill.

Survey Finds High Uninsurance Rate among Home Help Workers

Published
by
atoleos
on January 14, 2007
in Michigan
. 0 Comments

Nearly a third of Michigan’s Home Help providers are uninsured, according to When Michigan Caregivers Lack Coverage (pdf), a survey of the Home Help workforce, which provides home care services to Medicaid recipients.

The survey was conducted by HCHCW Michigan and funded by the Michigan Quality Home Care Coalition. Among its findings are the following:

  • The uninsurance rate among Home Help providers is almost three times as high as that of the state’s general population.
  • A third of the providers who have insurance are covered by Medicaid and/or Medicare. Another third get it through a second job or a spouse.
  • Home help providers pay significant out-of-pocket health care expenses despite low household incomes. More than half (56 percent) report household incomes of less than $30,000 a year.
  • Half of those without health insurance say they have chosen not to seen a doctor when they needed one.