Response from Representative David Cotta & Senator Libby Mitchell

This is the letter I received from Senator Mitchell in response to an email I sent to her and Representative Cotta opposing the cuts to the Homemaker Program. To view it, simply click on the image.











This is the response I got from Representative Cotta:

"I will oppose any cuts to the Homemaker program and view this attempt as politics at it's worst."

Rep. H David Cotta
Proudly Representing Citizens of
China, Albion, Benton, Unity TWP
(207) 215-8525

Here's the email:

Hello Senator Mitchell and Representative Cotta,
I'm sending you this email to let you know that I am opposed to the proposed cuts in DHHS's Homemaker Program.
I am a Direct Care Worker with Home Care for Maine. I help people in
this program.
These are elderly folk living in their homes. I help them with grocery shopping, taking them to medical appointments, the to bank, getting errands done. I also help them keep their homes clean and tidy.
They look forward to my visits every week. I look forward to seeing them too. I enjoy their company and I enjoy this job.
The two homemaking consumers that I have do not drive. They have family, but their children are working and not always able to help when help is needed.
This program helps keep these elders independent. That is something that is very important to them. They'd rather be in their own homes than in an assisted living facility or a nursing home or living with their children, feeling like they are a burden to them.
Both consumers I have need this help. There are many more like them on waiting lists for help. Both of these consumers are not able to push a vacuum around or clean out their tubs, they are not physically able to do this anymore.
I strongly disagree with Governor Baldacci's and Commissioner Brenda Harvey's saying that these cuts won't hurt some of Maine's "most vulnerable citizens." Elderly people are vulnerable.
Elderly people deserve to have help. Many of them have led long, productive lives and now need a little assistance in their "golden years."
Please think of your parents and grandparents and what the cuts would mean to them if they were on a waiting list to receive these kind of services and then told that they would not be getting them because there's no money.
After a lifetime of paying taxes, there's no money to help them, our "most vulnerable citizens."
As a Direct Care Worker, I do not make tons of money, I am not getting rich at it. There's no paid sick time, paid vacations, paid holidays and most important, no health insurance.
When I took this job, I had health care coverage through my husband. Circumstances changed and we now buy our own catastrophic coverage. It doesn't pay much and is very expensive, but the way I see it, we won't loose our home if one of us should become very sick. We won't have to file bankruptcy to pay our medical bills. That's just not right, you spend a lifetime working, paying your bills, making your own way just to lose what you've worked for if you should become very sick.
If I was in the position I'm in now, back when I took this job, I would not have been able to take it. I've been doing this for almost five years. What keeps me at it is the fact that I'm helping someone in need. There's a lot to be said for that. I enjoy what I do a lot. It is more than cleaning for someone, it is the satisfaction of knowing I'm making a difference for someone.
Thank you for your time and consideration on this very important matter.
Sincerely, Helen Hanson