Monthly Archive for May, 2007

HCHCW Campaign Coordinator, Tracy Lawless, participated in a rally in support of Prescription for Pennsylvania, the statewide legislative plan to reform health care that would benefit direct-care workers. Among the 700 people in attendance were direct-care workers and consumers. At the rally, Lawless commented on the cost saving and retention benefits that employers gain by offering health insurance. Read the article in the Post-Gazette.

After long deliberations, members of Maine’s Health and Human Services Committee voted to carry forward LD 1687, a Health Care for Health Care Workers bill, into the 2008 legislative session. They also voted to send the provisions of the bill to the Insurance and Financial Services Committee for consideration with a strong recommendation that the IFS committee look closely at the bill’s proposals and report back to the HHS in January 2008 with ideas on helping the direct-care workforce. The Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign considers the outcome to be a positive development.

Leaders and members of the Health Care for Health Care Workers initiative in Maine are focusing media attention on the need for better health coverage for direct-care workers.

An editorial by Joyce Gagnon of the Maine Personal Assistant Service Association (Maine PASA) cites facts from Direct Care Workforce: Wages, Health Coverage, and a Worker Registry, to explain the importance of the state’s direct-care workers. Gagnon urges support for several pending bills which would increase direct-care workers’ wages or benefits. Her editorial was published in the April 27 Bangor Daily News.

A May 3 article in the Morning Sentinel outlines Maine’s growing care gap, describing direct-care workers as the people “who keep the direct-care industry — more than 22,000 people who provide hands-on health assistance to the elderly, adults and children with disabilities — from collapsing.” One key to stabilizing the workforce, notes staff writer Colin Kickey, is providing health insurance. “If you look around at who is going to be going to be taking care of you as you age or should you become disabled, you will find there are not enough people do that work,” says Senate President Beth Edmonds, the sponsor of LD 1687, “and the ones that are there are dedicated, loyal folks who given the wage structure, and given the lack of health insurance, can’t persist in these jobs.”

And in an article in the May 6 Kennebec Journal, Hickey writes about the work the Kennebec Valley Organization is doing to promote LD 1687 and other initiatives to support direct-care workers.

The Pennsylvania HCHCW initiative has been spreading the word through some pretty big megaphones lately.

On May 4, the campaign’s parent organization, the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), held a legislative briefing for legislators in Western Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. The briefing focused on how a new statewide legislative plan to reform health care would benefit direct-care workers. The proposal would subsidize workers who earn less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Since the average wage for a direct-care worker in Pennsylvania is $9 an hour, most would qualify for subsidies. That same day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an editorial by Tracy Lawless, head of the Pennsylvania HCHCW initiative, about the need for affordable health insurance for direct-care workers. Lawless also did a radio interview on Metro Networks News after the hearing.

At the briefing, speakers including a direct-care worker, a consumer, and a home care employer shared with legislators issues surrounding the direct-care workforce and long-term care reform. Attendees included local state elected officials, representatives from the Governor’s office, and several state and federal legislative staff members.

“With the nation’s third-oldest population and the fastest-growing segment of people over 80, long-term care must be a top priority for the Commonwealth,” said Rep. Todd Eachus, Majority Policy Chairman and co-host of the event, in a PHI press release. “Quality care starts with direct-care workers, and lawmakers need to know the facts about what these professionals face every day.”

In her op-ed, Rx for Pennsylvania: Health-care workers need health-care coverage, Lawless wrote: “What happens when direct-care workers lack health coverage? Many are forced to seek better-paying jobs with health benefits so they can care for themselves and their families. Who suffers? Pennsylvanians who need long-term care.

“Providing health coverage to these workers is one critical way to help stabilize and grow this essential workforce, while ensuring the quality of care for Pennsylvania consumers. Gov. Ed Rendell’s health-care plan might help bring coverage to this overlooked segment of the state’s low-wage workforce. The ‘Prescription for Pennsylvania’ would help lower the cost of health care, improve its quality and expand coverage to those who can’t afford it. Direct-care workers would benefit because the plan targets small operations where many direct-care workers are employed.”

Tracy Lawless, campaign coordinator for the Pennsylvania Healthcare for Healthcare Workers initiative, spoke at a May 3 press conference in support of the proposed Prescription for Pennsylvania legislation.HCHCW’s parent organization, the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, has joined with several Pittsburgh-area groups, including Consumer Health Coalition and Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, to support of the legislation. The coalition held its press conference before the second day of hearings on bill by the state House Insurance Committee. Addressing the media before the hearing began, they spoke about the need for affordable, quality health care for all Pennsylvanians.

The coalition also sent a letter to state legislators urging them to support the legislation. “The Prescription for Pennsylvania would reduce health care costs and, we believe, slow the growth in insurance premiums that continues to force more employers to drop coverage and swell the ranks of the uninsured,” the letter says.