Recovery should target Eldercare/Disability Workforce

PHI President Steven Dawson comments on the importance of including direct care workers in the economic recovery plan. The Obama administration’s economic recovery team is under increasing pressure to create and improve jobs for those most in need: low-income workers, particularly women. To that end, PHI and others have proposed targeted increases in Medicaid to create and strengthen the eldercare/disability services workforce–the millions of jobs held by home health aides, certified nurse aides, and personal care workers. But so far, the response from the Obama team has been a flat “no.” That is unfortunate, because the stated purpose of the economic recovery is to get money quickly into the hands of those who will spend it fast. Since this recession will hit low-income communities faster, deeper, and longer than the rest of our nation, any economic recovery strategy must reach quickly into these communities. The eldercare/disability direct-care workforce–more than 3 million strong–is funded primarily with public dollars. Therefore, in a quick, yet lasting, boost to the economy, these primarily female low-wage workers would spend recovery dollars immediately on essential goods and services for their families. Instead, we’ve been told that the economic recovery will not reach direct-care workers, precisely because of that word “lasting.” The new administration wants the stimulus to be a one-time hit; it does not want any “lasting” increase in the base of federal spending. While that is logical, it is not–as President-elect Obama urged last week–very bold. The result of this logic will guarantee that nearly half of our nation’s personal care and home care workers–whose real wages have fallen over the past seven years–will continue to live in households dependent on some form of public assistance. They will be locked into poverty-wage jobs because, once the economic recovery has washed through, the administration will be desperate to find significant public savings. Usually, low-wage health care workers are told to wait–that their day for decent wages and benefits will come; this time, they are essentially being told to wait forever. Remember Kathy Lee Gifford’s embarrassment when it was revealed that the clothes carrying her label were manufactured off-shore by workers making poverty wages? At first she tried to claim those manufacturers were subcontractors, and that she had no moral obligation for those workers. Public opinion soon changed her mind. And you might also remember how presidential candidate Obama “walked a day” in the shoes of a home care worker in California last year. If he had also lived on the wage of that worker for a year, he could help his advisors understand that the federal government, as the primary funder of these jobs, has the same moral obligation to ensure that these publicly funded “subcontracted” workers do not go home at night to families living in poverty. Perhaps the administration has already concluded that our nation will always keep these publicly funded workers in poverty–and thus fail to serve adequately the growing number of elders and people with disabilities. If so, then not targeting a portion of the likely one trillion dollar recovery package is indeed logical. Yet if there remains a commitment to meet the administration’s obligation to create a stable eldercare/disability system, then beginning that investment now will prove a two-fold advantage: in one stroke, creating the fastest way to pump billions of dollars into low-income communities, while also making a down-payment on preparing our nation to care for its aging population. Steven L. Dawson President, PHI Quality Care through Quality Jobs I got this from PHI's blog. There are many responses and some are from direct care advocates right here in Maine. Check it out. I also urge anyone reading this to go to change.gov and voice your thoughts and concerns on this. If we bombard our leaders with our stories and let them know about the work we direct care workers do, maybe they'll take notice. It is worth a shot, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."