This report is from Helen Hanson – a direct-care worker in Maine – who has been involved in PHIs Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign and advocating for state action for direct care workers’ insurance since 2005.
Maine is one of thirteen states to receive a federal grant to help provide health care insurance to part-time, seasonal and direct care workers. Maine received this $8.5million grant from US HHS in the fall of 2009. Continue reading ‘Report from the Field: Update on Maine’s Health Insurance Project’
Helen Hanson
“I firmly believe: what is good for direct-care workers is good for America,” said Helen Hanson, a Maine direct-care worker who had a guest column on health care reform published recently by the Portland Press Herald.
In the editorial, Helen shares her personal story of living without affordable, comprehensive coverage. “To buy a health care plan that would protect us from bankruptcy we paid $3,200 per year, with a $10,000 deductible per family member, Hanson explained.
Hanson, loving her direct-care job, always feared that she would need to leave it to find employment that offered health insurance if she became ill. Almost 30% of the direct-care workforce faces the same problem.
“That’s why health reform matters so much to direct-care workers – and those they assist,” Hanson wrote. “A health care system that denies care to workers who are providing daily health-related services to millions is a system that needs fundamental change.”
Hanson urged Congress to pass reform that is:
- Accessible to all individuals regardless of their family status, their employment status, or how many hours they work.
- Affordable for workers, their families, and their employers.
- Adequate, with a full range of benefits to protect older workers, those with chronic health conditions, and injured workers.
- And the coverage should be simple, easy to understand and enroll in.
- A public option, along with a regulated insurance exchange, is essential to meet these goals.
Congress reconvenes today and tackling national health care reform continues to be a primary activity.
Allison Lee
National Campaign Manager
HCHCW
alee@phinational.org
In a significant victory for the fight for health care coverage for direct-care workers in Maine, the Governor’s office announced last week that the state has been awarded a grant of $8.5 million to provide expanded coverage to 3,500 Maine residents — including direct-care workers.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will provide $8.5 million a year for up to five years for the state to expand the Dirigo health program to part-time, seasonal, and direct-care workers.
Starting in 2010, workers employed by firms that offer health insurance and have over 50 employees will be eligible to receive vouchers to make their employer-sponsored insurance more affordable. The grant also will allow the Dirigo program to develop a special coverage product for workers who are not offered employer-sponsored coverage. Continue reading ‘Maine Grant Brings Coverage to Direct-Care Workers’
A few weeks ago, a handful of members of the Maine Direct Care Worker Coalition brought together department heads and legislative leaders in an unprecedented meeting to discuss health insurance options for the direct-care workforce. The meeting was held in the office of the Speaker of the House and was arranged by home-care worker Helen Hanson. The policymakers in attendance at the meeting were:
- Senator Nancy Sullivan
- Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree
- Senate President Libby Mitchell
- Trish Riley, the director of the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance
- Brenda Harvey, Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services
- Mila Kofman, Superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Insurance
- Representative Adam Goode
- Representative Steve Butterfield
- Representative James Campbell Continue reading ‘Worker-Led Effort Results in High Stakes Meeting’
We have another small victory in the ongoing battle to gain health care insurance for Maine’s DCWs!
Last Thursday, at the Insurance and Financial Services Committee held a work session for the Direct Care Worker Coalition’s bill for a pilot for health insurance for direct care workers (LD1059). Geoff Green, Deputy Commissioner of the Health and Human Services, spoke in support of our efforts. He said that DHHS is strongly supportive and wants to do a further study into the Montana Plan that provides a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase for employers who provide health insurance to their workers. He said the Department wants to work further with the Center for Medicare Services to figure this out how to do this in Maine. He said the Department is “willing to commit” to this, but told the committee that more time is needed than this legislative session allows.
The committee asked DHHS to come back with specifics on the plan. Green told them that pilots are hard to set up and that he wants to work with stakeholders to design a program but being so early in the process it was hard to say how long the process will take.
Here’s the best part, the Committee voted unanimously to carry over LD 1059 until the next session. We did it!
I say this is a small victory because never before has DHHS even offered to look into this for Maine’s direct care workers. Everyone who has worked on this a lot longer than I have has told me that this is the closest we’ve ever gotten. To have gained that commitment from DHHS is a big deal.
I know that we still have a long way to go before insurance is actually implemented, but every small victory counts. This is a hill we’ve been climbing for a while now, we are one more step closer to the top.
The Direct Care Worker Coalition’s next steps are to keep DHHS on task, and try to get more providers on board.
Again, I am willing to do what I can to keep this moving. I hear from so many workers that health insurance is important to them, they need it.
This is great news.
Helen Hanson
Direct-Care Worker and Coalition Leader
China, Maine
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