At its last meeting, the Direct Care Worker Coalition (DCWC) expressed a desire to return its discussion with the state’s Bureau of Insurance (BOI) to specifics. The goal is to build a better understanding of why this workforce deserves special consideration — and of the challenges the BOI group has to grapple with.
Following up on those wishes, Elise Scala took the initiative to build an agenda, in conjunction with Bureau of Insurance staff, for presentations to the BOI on the direct-care workforce.
Using the full two hours of the latest summer BOI meeting, members of the DCWC presented information on:
- the composition and importance of the direct-care workforce
- the results of various surveys
- the obstacles faced by direct-care workers in obtaining health insurance
- the testimonials of specific providers, consumers, and workers.
Continue reading ‘Maine Worker Coalition Members Make Their Case to the Bureau of Insurance’
A testimonial by Helen Hanson, a home care worker in Maine.
I am Helen Hanson, a direct-care worker with Home Care for Maine. I have been working at my home care job for five years. I help keep elderly folk living in their homes. I help them with grocery shopping, taking them to medical appointments, to the bank, getting errands done. I help them keep their homes clean and tidy. I also help them with personal care like bathing and dressing.
They look forward to my visits every week. I look forward to seeing them too. I enjoy their company and I enjoy this job. Continue reading ‘Living With the Threat of Cancer’
Last week, Health Care for Health Care Workers (HCHCW) staff and other PHI employees met with ten long-term care employers (pictured) in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The goal of the meeting was to familiarize providers in the region about PHI’s Nine Elements of a Quality Job and its HCHCW campaign.
The longterm goal of this outreach is to help group members become leaders in advocating for issues surrounding long-term care and the direct-care workforce — and familiarize them with PHI as a resource on health care and training programs.
At the beginning of the day, providers shared their public policy and advocacy experiences. Some had a great deal of experience in advocating around licensing, culture change, women’s issues, or patient rights, while others had never engaged in advocacy.
Then they discussed their concerns about the direct-care workforce. Most expressed dismay at being unable to raise wages or provide benefits because it is not affordable. In addition, some expressed concern about the work ethic of younger employees, while others said we need to do more to honor and value direct-care workers. There was also a discussion about inconsistent hours and inconsistent funding sources.
Continue reading ‘HCHCW Convenes SW PA Employers for Advocacy, Action’
When it comes to finding quality, affordable and accessible health insurance coverage, direct-care workers are stuck in the middle of a broken health care system. Caregivers Without Coverage, (pdf) a new Michigan fact sheet from Health Care for Health Care Workers, illustrates how that happens in Michigan and why it matters — to long-term care consumers and employers, as well as the workers themselves.
Twenty-three percent of direct-care workers in Michigan – that’s about 27,000 people - do not have health insurance coverage. They earn too little to afford health insurance when it is offered, yet their income is too high to qualify for public coverage, even though direct-care workers average $5.32 an hour less than the state median.
Other key facts detailed in Caregivers Without Coverage include:
- How employer-sponsored health insurance reduces turnover, saving employers and the long-term care system money on recruitment and training;
- The high rates of uninsurance among home care workers, and what that means for the growth of that popular sector of long-term care.
Tameshia Bridges, PHI Michigan Senior Workforce Advocate
tbridges@phinational.org
Health Care for America Now, a national grassroots campaign seeking to win affordable, quality health care for all Americans, launched on July 8 with events across the country. PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign recently joined the new campaign.
In three key HCHCW states, HCHCW staff and partners participated in launch events, seizing the opportunity to focus attention on the health care needs of direct-care workers:
- Pennsylvania. HCHCW Community Organizer Simone Baer spoke about the thousands of direct-care workers caring for the state’s most vulnerable citizens who lack health care coverage of their own. The event was covered by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
- Iowa. Iowa’s HCHCW partner, the Iowa CareGivers Association, participated in the launch on the steps of the state capitol. The ICA is one of 18 initial members of a growing campaign in Iowa that is working to assure that the next President and Congress pass legislation guaranteeing quality, affordable health care for all. ”As a key battleground state in the Presidential election, Iowa will be a focal point for debate over the respective candidates’ plans to reform the health care system,” said ICA Policy Director John Hale. “The ICA and direct-care workers will be involved in those debates, and will insure that the candidates recognize the unique needs of direct-care workers in getting and keeping adequate and affordable health care coverage.”
- Maine. Helen Hanson, a direct-care worker from China, Maine, represented the Maine Direct-Care Worker Coalition, a HCHCW partner, at the launch event on the steps of her state’s capitol. Helen spoke of her struggle with health care bills after routine tests that were not covered by her catastrophic coverage plan. Another HCHCW partner, the Maine Center for Ecomomic Policy, also participated in the launch event, which was covered by the Portland Press Herald.
Things will be heating up as the Presidential campaign moves toward November. Visit the Health Care for America Now website to find out how you can get involved.
Allison Lee, HCHCW National Campaign Manager
alee@phinational.org
While the first BOI meeting was largely a round of introductions and a broad overview of the work ahead, at this last meeting BOI staff delved into the nitty-gritty of the Maine Insurance Code. The point of this exercise was to see if there was already an existing model/structure that would allow the Direct Care workforce to organize some kind of insurance purchasing pool or entity that could acquire coverage through the private markets (or form their own, independent insurance pool that essentially would act as an insurance company specifically for Maine’s direct-care workers (DCWs). Continue reading ‘Update on Maine Board of Insurance Workgroup Meeting’
When the General Assembly reconvenes the last week in September, four important pieces of business relating to health care, which were left unfinished when the legislators headed home for the summer, will be at the top of the agenda. Between now and then, we want your help engaging Pennsylvania’s direct-care workers in this debate.
The four issues:
- Health insurance for the uninsured;
- Health insurance market reform for small businesses and individuals;
- Reauthorization of the PA Health Care Cost Containment Council, the agency that assesses data like the cost and quality of health care; and
- Malpractice insurance premium reductions for hospitals and doctors
The four were not addressed because Senate leaders kept SB 1137, PA- Access to Basic Care, bottled up for three months in the Senate committee that allows bills to come up for a vote. PA-ABC, as it is called, would provide affordable health care coverage – including prescription drug and behavioral health care – for uninsured Pennsylvanians. It was passed by the House in March. The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee finally held a hearing on the bill in June, but no further action was taken.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans unveiled an outline of an entirely different health care plan built around free medical care, volunteer doctors, and tax credits and grants for community health clinics. That plan, known as Health Net, would do little to help cover the uninsured. It would also be difficult to implement, since its success would depend on being able to serving the uninsured with volunteers and extend existing COBRA plans. It also calls for providing a few thousand people in a very high risk pool with minimal coverage for $10 million — an optimistic goal, since this would be an extremely costly group to insure.
Continue reading ‘Pennsylvania Has Unfinished Business on Health Care’
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