Health Care for Health Care Workers

In Maine, we are working to:

Pass legislation to increase access to health care coverage for direct-care workers.

Make DirigoChoice, the state’s new health care program, more accessible for direct-care employers and workers.

Connect uninsured and underinsured direct-care staff with health care resources.

Our Maine Partners

Maine Direct Care Worker Coalition
The Maine Direct Care Worker Coalition includes workers, consumers, and service providers from the full range of long-term care services. It promotes policy and practices that respect and value direct-care workers in order to sustain quality direct-care services. The coalition coordinates a range of statewide advocacy work on behalf of direct-care workers. As a key part of that work, it supports health insurance legislation. This year, the coalition is introducing a bill that will enable DirigoChoice to better serve the direct-care workforce.

Maine Personal Assistance Services Association
A member of the Maine Direct Care Worker Coalition, the Maine Personal Assistance Services Association (Maine PASA) works to expand health care coverage for direct-care workers, both on behalf of HCHCW Maine and on its own. Through HCHCW, it provided a grant to Consumers for Affordable Health Care in 2006, helping to fund a help line that provides information to direct-care workers and others on how to secure health insurance. Maine PASA also trains workers to advocate for affordable health care and other issues, and it supported the legislation that grew out of the LD 1934 study bill . The association has established strategic partnerships with other organizations around the state that are concerned about health care coverage.