Legislation Introduced to Gain Health Insurance for Maine's Direct Care Workers

On January 15th, the Maine Direct Care Worker Coalition was successful in getting a bill introduced for a pilot program for health care coverage for direct care workers. The bill is sponsored by Senator Nancy Sullivan, former co-chair of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee. Senator Sullivan became a champion for direct care worker issues after a strong hearing on a bill (pdf) addressing health care for DCWs heard by the committee last year. The bill echoed the recent recommendation of the Bureau of Insurance. The report does mention Dirigo and Dirigo's design as a possible way of providing DCWs with health insurance. What that means is that because we workers are low paid, we could get help with subsidies to help with the cost of the insurance. But, LD1687 failed because it was Dirigo specific. Dirigo was in trouble last year. Now with the loss of potential revenue from the "beer tax", that the beverage lobby spent millions to defeat (just think if those millions were spent on health care instead!), Dirigo is surely struggling. There are no more subsidies for individuals or sole proprietors or small businesses. Enrollment is closed for those who need subsidies. With the Maine State Chamber of Commerce (please see post about small businesses and health care reform) filing litigation against the way the savings offset payment is figured, that also slows the process of Dirigo getting those payments. I think litigation on this has been filed almost every year since Dirigo went into operation. And, the Maine State Chamber had representatives at the table during the Direct Care Worker work group sessions with the Bureau of Insurance last summer. Go figure. With Dirigo in trouble, that leaves DCWs again with little or no health insurance options. The bill as introduced reads: An Act to Enhance Health Care for Direct Care Workers This bill would establish a pilot project with a $500,000 limit (up to discussion) that will be available to providers of MaineCare Services to enhance or add health insurance for their health care workers. The funding will come from MaineCare. There will be a simple process by which providers may apply for this limited project. The DCWC (Direct Care Worker Coalition) is working on steering this legislation away from Dirigo. That's what foundered our last attempts with LD1687. This is a pilot project. We are working out the details as to how agencies will be chosen to participate. One thing I'm pushing for is that the money does get turned into health insurance for the workers, not what I call fluff. Fluff like "health care fairs" where we learn how to eat right, get enough exercise, live healthy. I think we all know how to do that, no matter what we do for work. Fairs like that are nice and I do enjoy them and enjoy talking with fellow workers, but I want this to come down as health insurance for direct care workers. Talking with other advocates who have been working on this issue for years, I get the feeling from them that this is the closest we've ever come to actually gaining health insurance for DCWs. Don't kid yourself, although this is excellent, we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us. We need to be at any legislative hearings pertaining to this bill, showing our support and our need for health insurance. Yes, advocates have been there for us in the past, but it is also very effective for our senators and representatives to hear it from us workers. I'm very excited about this bill and am working with the DCWC to push this forward. We are at the beginning of the process. As we move it along, I'll post as the information becomes available. It is very exciting!