Health Care for Health Care Workers

Now that the two conventions are over and the platforms for the Republican (pdf) and Democratic (pdf) parties have been approved, it’s clear that health care is a national priority for this election — and, hopefully, beyond.  But which party’s plans would do the most to help direct-care workers?

Both health care plans would help direct-care workers by focusing on such things as chronic disease management, ensuring portability, and eliminating pre-existing condition exclusions.  But the Democratic platform provides more specific provisions aimed at guaranteeing access to affordable insurance.

The Democratic Platform

The underlying principles set out in the Democratic platform’s section on health care begins with making sure every man, woman and child has access to quality, affordable health care. It also includes:

• Affordable quality health care is essential to making workers productive and businesses competitive;
• Affordable coverage should be subsidized through tax credits and other means;
• Health care coverage should be a shared responsibility between the worker, employers, insurers, providers and government;
• Disparities in health coverage should be ended among minorities and low-income people;
• Americans should have a choice between keeping their private coverage and public health plans; and
• Government should ensure that all Americans should have meaningful and affordable coverage.

The Democratic plan also addresses the need to build a strong health care workforce, specifically mentioning direct-care workers as part of that workforce.

The Republican Platform

The Republican platform calls for:

• Disease prevention programs and health information technology to improve care;
• Individual choice of plans and providers;
• Malpractice reform;
• Rewarding good providers;
• Cost containment through competition;
• Funding medical research;
• Providing tax credits to families to purchase insurance, including Health Savings Accounts and high-deductible health plans; and
• Financing expanded coverage by taxing employee benefits.

Conclusions

While many details are yet to be worked out for both of these platforms, the principles outlined in the Democratic platform line up best with what HCHCW has found works best in expanding coverage to low-income direct-care workers and their families. Specifically, HCHCW has found, health care plans must be:

1. Accessible to all individuals regardless of their family, their employment status, or how many hours they work;
2. Affordable for workers and their employers, with limited cost sharing for workers earning low wages; and
3. Adequate, with a full range of benefits and individual services to protect older workers,  whose with chronic health conditions, and injured workers

For more information on the essential elements of a health care plan for the direct-care workforce, read Expanding Coverage for Caregivers: A Checklist for State Health Care Reform (pdf).

Allison Lee
National Campaign Manager
alee@phinational.org