A testimonial by Brenda N., a hospice nurse aide in Pennsylvania:
I have health insurance; I wouldn’t work for anyplace that didn’t offer it. But my out-of pocket costs are very, very high and rising. I contribute $65 every two weeks, plus $20 co-pays, a percentage of prescriptions, and a yearly deductible of $400. All of these costs are about to go up, but my pay isn’t going up.
My hourly rate is $12 per hour, but after my health insurance expenses, I’m at the poverty level. After I pay my bills, I have only five to ten dollars left per month. I have to work a second job to make ends meet.
A testimonial by Cheryl D., a home care consumer in Pennsylvania:
At the age of 14, a cardiac arrest left my son Renzo with a severe anoxic brain injury. For the last seven years, he has been completely dependent on the help of direct-care workers. I pay at the higher end of the wage scale ($10.50 - $15 per hour), but I can’t afford health benefits for his workers. Continue reading ‘Turnover Makes Care Difficult’
A testimonial by Lori M., a home care agency executive director from Pennsylvania:
The first time I tried offering health insurance to retain some of our workers, it didn’t work.
We went through a cafeteria style policy. The price depended on age, medical condition and what they chose to have as coverage. I don’t know what coverage they took. I paid $1.15 of the premiums cost for every hour worked per month, plus the $120 sign-up fee. Continue reading ‘Often Short-Staffed Because of High Turnover’
A testimonial by Joan D., a home care agency owner in Maine:
I know that providing health insurance would help me retain workers. One of my full-time aides who needed coverage prompted my search for insurance by letting me know she would have to seek employment elsewhere if I was unable to offer it in the near future.
The instability of hours is the biggest challenge for direct care workers: if I don’t have work for them, I can’t afford to pay their health insurance. What we really need in this industry is to make health benefits portable, so they can move with them as they move from agency to agency.
A testimonial from Tina, a home care worker in Maine:
My name is Tina, and I provide home based care for Eunice from 10 at night until 7 in the morning. Then, from 8 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon I go to my other job at a developmental disability agency in town. Continue reading ‘I Can’t Afford to Get the Care I Need’
A testimonial by Eunice Spooner, a home care consumer in Sidney, Maine:
My name is Eunice Spooner, I’m a member of First Congregational Church in Waterville, and I live in Sidney. I was a school teacher until a car crash left me a quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair over 20 years ago. Since then, I have had many blessings in my life – wonderful family, friends, and caregivers, the chance to be a deacon at church, a volunteer at the Atwood Elementary School, and a member of the SAD #47 School Board. Still, the fact is that I cannot get through my day without a lot of assistance throughout the day, from getting up, doing light housework, driving to appointments, going me to bed and even using the bathroom. Continue reading ‘Worries About Losing Her Caregivers’
A testimonial from Iya’Negra L., a certified nursing assistant in Maine:
I am a certified nurse aide who has worked in several different nursing homes. In 2004, I had health insurance coverage for six months, which covered my three girls and me. It cost $174 per pay period, but this became too expensive for me. After rent and all of the other basic household expenses I wasn’t making ends meet. So I dropped the health insurance. Continue reading ‘Health Problems Kept Me Away From Work’
Maine State Senate President Beth Edmonds introduced legislation to increase access to health care for direct-care workers. The bill, LD 1687, expands the definition of businesses eligible for DirigoChoice, the state’s health care program, to include state-funded long-term care providers that have more than 50 employees.The bill makes DirigoChoice coverage available to home care workers who work part-time and are not eligible for Medicaid or employer-sponsored health insurance. It also establishes a demonstration program to increase health insurance coverage among direct-care workers at agencies that get funding from Medicaid or other state long-term care programs.
PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign is working closely with the Maine Coalition to pass LD 1687 this session.
A testimonial from Karen B., a home care agency manager in Michigan:
I am a manager for a home-care agency with between 150 and 200 employees. I feel caught between a rock and a hard spot because I have so many employees and so little profit margin. There is no way I can afford to offer health benefits. It’s a horrible place to be in. If anybody in my family were to get sick, we have insurance, but my workers don’t. Continue reading ‘I Can’t Afford To Cover My Workers’
A testimonial from Eric T., a home care consumer in Michigan:
I’ve had over 300 direct-care workers in the last seven years. None of them have had health insurance from their work. They may have had it through their spouse, but this was very few of them.
I’ve had a couple workers for five to seven years, but mostly they stay around 18 months. Sometimes I only see a worker one time and then they (the agency) send a different person the next day. I get fill-in staff a lot.
I think workers would stay longer in the job if they had health insurance. It would mean less stress for them, it would make them believe in their job more and help them get something out of it. My workers do a lot of lifting and other physical work. The heavy work they put in now will catch up with their bodies in the future. They need to have a healthy life and be able to take care of their families.
They’re taking care of people who get care through Medicaid but they can’t get insurance themselves. The state’s Medicaid dollars are used to take care of people who need long-term care, so the same funds should be used to cover the workers providing the care.
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