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?’
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As part of the Put Michigan People First Coalition, PHI-HCHCW received the President’s Recognition Award from the Michigan Association of Health Plans. This award was presented to us for being,” one of the key advocates for the “Put Michigan People First Coalition” which has made a positive impact on promoting consumer advocacy as well as accessibility and affordability to health care coverage in Michigan.”
As part of the Coalition, HCHCW has been working to make sure that the needs of direct-care workers are not forgotten in the individual market reform debate. The Coalition has and will continue to advocate that the following components be present in the legislation that is finally passed later this year:
- Continues the non-profit status of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and its social mission as Michigan’s insurer of last resort, accepting all who apply.
- Retains the six-month waiting period before insurance benefits begin for people with existing conditions and extends this concept for all health insurance companies in Michigan.
- Excludes the creation of a “high-risk” pool that would result in increased health insurance premium costs for those who are older and sicker.
- Protects consumers with appropriate regulatory oversight by the attorney general and the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation (OFIR).
- Implements no significant changes to Blue Cross’ rating methodology that would include the consideration of health status.
If you would like to write your legislator about this issue, please contact Tameshia Bridges at (517) 372-8310 or tbridges@phinational.org for more information.
Tameshia Bridges
Michigan Senior Workforce Advocate
PHI/HCHCW
tbridges@phinational.org
Medicaid and Medicare are often referred to as central pillars of America’s health care safety net. A recent analysis of U.S. Census data on the uninsured (pdf) by Raising Women’s Voices, shows that the availability of public coverage has contributed to the decline in uninsured Americans from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007. For many women, public coverage is more than a safety net - it is a vital source of health insurance coverage, with almost 29% of women relying on public coverage to meet their health care needs.
We see this trend among direct-care workers as well. About one-third of direct-care workers live in a household that receives Medicaid benefits. It is often the children of direct-care workers that receive coverage through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). And, in some states that have broad eligibility standards, workers themselves are covered by Medicaid or other public coverage.
Expanding access to public coverage has been one key strategy for the Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign. With the cost of health insurance coverage rising and the wages of workers not keeping pace, employer-sponsored health insurance remains out of reach for many direct-care workers. While we also advocate for strategies that make employer sponsored insurance more affordable, in many cases public programs provide necessary coverage when workers have nowhere else to turn to meet their health care needs.
As states look at expanding or making changes to public programs, it is important that they remember the health care needs of direct-care workers. The income standards need to be high enough and available to people without children so that more workers can be eligible for this coverage. We have heard many times that workers are often not eligible for public programs because – with an average wage of $9.56/hour - they make too much money or they do not have children.
Public coverage programs also need to provide comprehensive coverage with the services that direct-care workers need - like disease management to help monitor diabetes or physical therapy to help a worker get back on her feet after an injury.
Finally, coverage has to be accessible. Just providing people with a card is not enough. Public programs have to have enough doctors, dentists, hospitals, and other providers in their networks so that people can get the care when they need it.
We are excited to be working in states as advocates to sure that public coverage is affordable, comprehensive, and accessible to workers. It is a critical foundation that many rely and it needs to be made stronger.
Tameshia Bridges
Senior Workforce Advocate
PHI/HCHCW
tbridges@phinational.org
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
The Michigan HCHCW Campaign has been involved in the individual market reform debate since HB 5282 (pdf) and HB 5283 (pdf) were introduced in the Michigan House. The bills would change how Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) would operate in the individual health insurance market, allowing BCBSM to:
- set premium rates based on age and health status;
- limit the ability of consumers and the Attorney General to challenge rate rate increases; and
- establish a high-risk health pool.
Michigan HCHCW looked at whether this legislation would make health insurance more affordable or accessible for direct-care workers. Our concern is that it would reduce access and increase cost and alter Blue Cross Blue Shield’s mission as the insurer of last resort in Michigan.
Continue reading ‘HCHCW Joins Individual Market Reform Debate in Michigan’
Caregiving is women’s work.
It is with that simple statement in mind that I went to the Raising Women’s Voices Conference last month, sponsored by the Avery Institute, Merger Watch, and the National Women’s Health Network.
I was invited to participate on the opening plenary panel to discuss voices that are traditionally left out of health care reform discussions. I talked about direct-care workers — and about Health Care for Health Care Workers and the broader work of PHI.
The conference brought together women’s health advocates, providers, and women in general to talk about health care issues and shape a women’s agenda for health care reform. There were the usual PowerPoint presentations and policy recommendations, but the way the organizers encouraged presenters to tell our stories made it clear from the start that this was no ordinary conference. Raising Women’s Voices lived up to its name, honoring the power of women’s voices and experiences as consumers and providers.
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