Earlier this year, a report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality noted that home health agencies can play a critical role in responding to a potential flu pandemic. The article even points out the role that workers have in addressing such a crisis and how challenges with recruitment and retention can impact an agency’s ability to respond. Continue reading ‘Where Do Workers Turn In Flu Season?’
Monthly Archive for October, 2008
Since I started with the Health Care for Health Care Workers Campaign a little over a year ago, it has become apparent that it is the stories, letters, and advocacy efforts of direct-care workers that ultimately resonate with policy makers as well as the public.
The article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Karen Goroncy and her lack of health insurance highlighted how it impacts her ability to care for her consumer. Melva William’s letter to the editor in response to Karen’s story voices her own fears about getting sick and not being able to continue to take care of her ailing mother due to her own lack of health insurance. It is these stories that provide a face for the HCHCW Campaign mission.
It is the passion that workers have about improving wages, benefits, and overall perception of their work and the industry that make a difference in our campaign. If it had not been for one hundred workers across the state who called their legislators back in March demanding that health care be made affordable and accessible, the health insurance reform legislation “PA ABC” may never have passed the House with such success. Next session, we’ll need that same passion to try and get an affordable health insurance plan passed by both Houses.
In order to continue these efforts, I am looking to meet direct-care workers who are willing to share their personal stories regarding health insurance, participate in “come care with me days” where they invite a policy maker to their place of work, and ultimately form a committee of workers from across the state who will work together to advocate for affordable and accessible health insurance the direct-care workforce.
In the next few months, I will be traveling to different nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home health agencies, and the homes of direct-care workers to hold a series of brown bag lunches and small gatherings to talk with workers about the campaign and the variety of activities listed above. With the help of members from the Direct Care Worker Association, I have already scheduled several meetings and brown bag lunches for the fall, as well as collected several new stories to add to the campaign’s story bank.
If you are interested in getting involved, please contact me, Simone Baer, at (412) 450-8080 or by email at sbaer@phinational.org. I’d love to talk with you about joining us in these activities and how your story can make a difference.
Simone Baer
PA Community Organizer
sbaer@phinational.org
A new report by the National Women’s Law Center, Nowhere to Turn: How the Individual Health Insurance Market Fails Women, focuses on the harsh realities of the individual health insurance market.
Many Americans are unfamiliar with the individual market because they receive health insurance through an employer. However, since nearly 30% of direct-care workers lack health insurance of any kind, and only about half receive it from their employer, direct-care workers often look to the invidual market.
The report highlights the policies and practices of the market that put women, who are 90% of the direct-care workforce, at a disadvantage when trying to secure affordable, quality health insurance on their own.
For more statistics on the health insurance status of the direct-care workforce, see our May 2008 report: Invisible Care Gap: Caregivers Without Coverage (pdf 1.9MB)
Allison Lee
National Campaign Manager
Health Care for Health Care Workers
alee@phinational.org
A new fact sheet from HCHCW, Women Caring for Women (pdf), examines the unique characteristics that are inherent to the direct-care workforce because it is dominated by women. Some of the key facts revealed in this publication:
- Women are 90 percent of the 3.1 million paid, professional caregivers in long-term care.
- Nearly two thirds (65 percent) of long-term care consumers are women.
- Nearly one in three direct-care workers lack health insurance coverage.
Of the leading occupations for women, caregiving is the sixth largest in the country. As the number of people in need of care increases dramatically over the next decade, the need for direct-care workers will also grow. By 2016, America will need 4 million direct-care workers, more than the number of school teachers needed for grades K-12.
The challenge is how to attract women to the caregiving profession - a job that is typically low wage and lacks affordable, quality health insurance. There is a simple answer: improve the quality of caregiving jobs, making direct-care work a viable career. A quality job is one that offers a livable wage, health insurance, a supportive work environment, and opportunities for advancement.
Allison Lee
National Campaign Manager
Health Care for Health Care Workers
alee@phinational.org
The Pennsylvania Senate leadership did not allow a vote on any health care bills before leaving Harrisburg for the year, therefore precluding a vote on Pennsylvania Access to Basic Care (PA-ABC), a health care reform bill that would have provided health care and prescription drug benefits to more than 250,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians, including direct care workers.
Since the House approved PA-ABC last spring, the Senate has repeatedly criticized the plan for its failure to secure a long-term funding source beyond five years. More recently, as state revenues decreased and the economy collapsed, Senators were hesitant to support a major expansion of a public program like PA-ABC. The Health Care for Health Care Workers Campaign, along with other allied organizations, advocated that the possibility of having to cut funding for PA-ABC in five years should not deny thousands who need reliable health care now.
Funding for PA ABC was to come from health account surpluses, smokeless tobacco taxes, and federal Medicaid spending. PA-ABC failed not because of lack of funding but because special interest groups refused to support it.
By providing affordable health insurance, PA-ABC would have created a way for uninsured direct care workers get treatment that they may have delayed and allowed them to begin a pattern of primary care and prevention. Our entire health care system would have become more efficient as a result.
The Health Care for Health Care Workers Campaign will continue to work on this issue until meaningful health care reform becomes a reality. We encourage all direct workers, providers, and consumers in Pennsylvania to express their disappointment to their state Senators. You can reach your Senator by going to http://www.legis.state.pa.us/ and plugging in your zip code.
Tracy Lawless
Pennsylvania State Campaign Coordinator
Health Care for Health Care Workers
tlawless@phinational.org
An October 6, 2008 story from The Philadelphia Inquirer examines the challenges faced by a Pennsylvania home health aide who lacks health coverage. Read a snippet below and then follow the link to the full article: Continue reading ‘Story: A Caregiver Is Denied Medical Care’
A new Vermont fact sheet (pdf) from the Health Care for Health Care Workers Campaign shows that one in four direct-care workers in Vermont lacks health insurance. Even more startling, is the fact that 50% of the workers who are uninsured work full-time.
While Vermont has been a national leader in creating health insurance options that are affordable and comprehensive, the HCHCW campaign has found that reaching direct-care workers to inform them about those options is difficult since no centralized list of workers exists. In the last few months, HCHCW has partnered with AARP-Vermont, the Vermont Association of Professional Care Providers, and the Vermont Campaign for Health Security to implement a worker and employer outreach campaign to spread the work about the various health care options that are available.
“From what we know about direct-care worker wages, most of the uninsured workers in Vermont are eligible for one of the state-funded health care programs at little or no cost per month, “said Alex Olins, New England Policy Director for PHI. “The challenge is reaching them. I hope that by combining our efforts we’ll be able to reach significant numbers of workers and tell them about these great programs.”
HCHCW Vermont hopes to work with policy makers to develop solutions for both outreach and tracking of health care enrollment by occupation, an additional problem, in the coming year.
Allison Lee
National Campaign Manager
HCHCW
alee@phinational.org
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