Direct Care Alliance Legislative Visits on Capitol Hill

Today, members of the Direct Care Alliance, the national advocacy group empowering workers to use their voice to bring about the change the workforce needs, spent the day visiting with members of Congress on Capitol Hill. The group from Maine; Julie Moulton from Maine PASA, Helen Hanson from Local 771 and Maine PASA, and Dennis Fitzgibbons, executive director of Alpha One, talked to staffers in two representative's offices. They got to talk to Representative Chellie Pingree in her office. The purpose of these legislative visits was to thank Representative Linda Sanchez and Representative Mike Michaud for their support with the Fair Labor Standards Act in extending the same rights other workers have in guaranteed minimum wage and paid overtime that workers in home care settings are denied. Both representatives signed a letter in favor of getting home care workers the same protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act as those workers in other occupations. They also gained support for direct care workers in health care reform. Direct care workers are a vital part of the overall health care system and they cannot be forgotten when the policy makers and congressional leaders start tackling this huge issue. seated, Dennis Fitzgibbons; l to r, Helen Hanson, Representative Chellie Pingree, Julie Moulton Representative Chellie Pingree was in her office and the group got to meet with her and explain the issues. She too was very supportive of what the Direct Care Alliance is proposing with the Fair Labor Standards Act. Representative Pingree was also in support of keeping direct care workers in the discussion with health care reform. The next steps are to follow up with Representative Pingree and see that she signs on. Tomorrow proves to be another busy day. We are meeting with staffers in Senator Collins' and Senator Snowe's offices.

Hearing for Direct Care Wages Bill

LD 1364, An Act To Stimulate the Economy by Expanding Opportunities for Personal Assistance Workers, has its hearing on Tuesday, April 28, 2009, in Room 209 of the Cross Office Building at the State Capitol. This bill will raise the pay of direct care workers across the state to $12.00 per hour. Click on the link (pdf) in order to view the complete bill. Okay workers, here's your chance to talk to the Health and Human Services Committee and tell them what you tell me and union headquarters...our pay is not enough for what we do for work. If you're not comfortable in speaking before the committee, please come to show your support for your work, your co-workers, and the people you care for. This bill is another one that is very important to the direct care workforce in Maine. You have a chance to tell the Health and Human Services Committee what it is like to work as a direct care worker, what it is like to make low wages, how much the people you care for depend upon you, and how they want to remain home because they can stay independent. Take the chance and go for it. Direct care workers are the best advocates for themselves and the people they help out. Policy experts can talk all they want about direct care work, but until they've actually done it, they don't know what it is like. Don't let this great opportunity to advocate for yourself and co-workers pass you by. If you want to testify, but cannot for some reason, you can have someone from MSEA-SEIU submit your testimony on your behalf. That way, your important story makes it in the record. Email me if this is something you'd like to do, helen.hnsn@gmail.com. If you need a ride, are interested in carpooling, or want more information, please send me an email, helen.hnsn@gmail.com, or call Jay Economy or Aymie Walsh at union headquarters at 1-800-452-8794. If you want to make a better wage, come to the hearing on LD 1364, show your support, or testify.

Updates on Various Health Care Reform Bills here in Maine

April 16, 2009 Dear Consumers for Affordable Health Care Members and Allies: We are very pleased to report success in moving along health reform efforts in Maine! We have hope that Maine will once again lead the nation with meaningful health care policies. Transparency and Cost Containment On Monday, there was great turnout to the public hearing in support of LD 1205, An Act to Establish a Health Care Bill of Rights, sponsored by Insurance and Financial Services Committee House Chair Sharon Treat. Thanks to all of you who came to Augusta to offer testimony and to those of you who couldn't join us but sent in testimony; special thanks to the Maine People’s Alliance, Kennebec Valley Organization, Maine Center for Economic Policy, Maine Equal Justice, and Maine Women’s Lobby for their testimony. We felt a change in the air compared to past years; lawmakers seem to understand that consumers are fed up with the lack of information we are getting about our health insurance plans and how little of our premiums are spent on medical care. We believe that with more effort, we can make transparency and cost containment from our health insurers a reality. To that end, we focused our testimony on the need for more information when choosing an insurance plan. The analogy of the day came from Representative Treat, who noted that you can get more information when buying a house than you can when purchasing health insurance. Indeed, before you make that huge investment someone inspects the house and tells you what's good and what's not. Imagine if buying health insurance were like that! When many of us are spending the equivalent of a mortgage on health insurance the process should at the very least have some checks and balances like a home! A lot of Monday’s testimony was about the amount of our premium dollars that insurers spend on actual medical care (medical loss ratio). We believe that insurers can increase this amount and use our health care dollars more wisely. But we have to help our legislators understand why getting more of our premium dollars spent on our health care, instead of profits, advertising, and lobbying is important. To help you talk with legislators and others, you'll get an action alert and talking points from us soon. On the Dirigo Front . . . On Tuesday, the Insurance and Financial Services Committee heard two bills to stabilize funding for DirigoChoice. As we all know, the Savings Offset Payment (SOP) mechanism has proven to be contentious, litigious, and unstable; it has not been able to provide stable funding for the program. Legislative changes made after the passage if the Dirigo legislation that dramatically extended the collection period of the assessed savings made the problem worse. CAHC vigorously opposed those changes on the grounds that it would create cash flow issues for the program. Our objections and insight went unheeded, and the legislature adopted the changes to the detriment of the program. In the last legislative session CAHC reluctantly agreed to “compromise legislation” that provided an alternative funding mechanism for the Dirigo program while providing a reinsurance component designed to offer rate relief to Maine’s health insurance consumers. The legislation was based on recommendations offered by the Blue Ribbon Commission to Study Dirigo Health. The Fed Up With Taxes campaign, fueled by over $4.5 million dollars of out of state money, derailed the implementation of the legislation. The Governor and Representative Sharon Treat have offered another option, which is the only legislative option left to save and stabilize the program. The bills heard on Tuesday, LD 1005 and LD 1264, move the funding from the current SOP mechanism to a straight monthly assessment of 2.14% on paid claims by private insurance carriers. It is estimated that the change will result in a stable base of funding of $42 million dollars annually to support the program. Although the two bills are similar, LD 1005 – An Act to Continue Access to Dirigo Choice Health Insurance by Reducing Administrative Costs and Replacing the Savings Off Set Payment, contains an important difference that all CAHC members should support. LD 1005 prevents the cost of the assessment paid by the carriers to be passed onto those of us who pay premiums. We call it a “no pass through provision”. It is important that the DirigoChoice program be stabilized, but it also important that its costs not be shifted onto us. CAHC Coalition members pressed this point at this week’s public hearings. It is vital that we support the existence of the DirigoChoice program that many Maine families rely on. It is also an important platform to assist Maine’s workers who have lost their jobs. For them the DirigoChoice option is a lifeline. The Dirigo Health Agency and the DirigoChoice product are also vital to the implementation of the “mini-COBRA” federally subsidized plans that are coming to Maine as part of the economic stimulus legislation recently approved by Congress. Much is at stake, and that is why CAHC supports the funding change. At Tuesday’s hearings, CAHC staff and Coalition members expressed our support, but objected to the cost being passed onto Maine’s consumers. We feel this is especially true given the savings the Dirigo reforms have brought to Maine’s health care system. We urge our members to contact your elected officials and demand that the costs of the Dirigo program not be passed on to us, and that more needs to be done to make health insurance more accessible and affordable for Maine people. We need to support LD 1005 as the best alternative. Single Payer Tuesday was also a day for two important bills on single payer efforts in Maine. Lots of folks testified on both LD 1365, An Act To Establish a Single-payer Health Care System, sponsored by Representative Charlie Priest and LD 1002, Resolve, To Conduct an Updated Study of the Feasibility of Establishing a Single-payer Health Care System in the State, sponsored by Paulette Beaudoin. LD 1365 lays out a plan for a single payer system in Maine, and LD 1002 directs the state to fund a feasibility study for implementing single payer. CAHC spoke out in favor of both bills, hoping to lay the framework for further health care reform in this state. Let your legislators know how important these bills are. We ask you all to think about how you can help to educate our leaders about the need for transparency and cost containment in our health care and coverage. We all agree enough is enough. In this economy, we need to make our dollars go further--with the cost of health care so integrally linked to the economy, the only way to fix our economy is to fix our health care system. These transparency and cost containment measures are some steps in the right direction. We work hard for our money. Let's make sure that all of us who pay dearly for health coverage get a chance to make informed, smart decisions. Those decisions are the framework for ongoing and meaningful health care reform. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to discuss further. Best, Doug & Darcy Douglas R. Clopp Director of Governmental Relations/Coalition Coordinator Consumers for Affordable Health Care Foundation "Advocating the right to health care for every man, woman and child." 39 Green St., P.O. Box 2490, Augusta, ME 04338-2490 Ph: 207.622.7083 Cell: 207.318.2378 Fx: 207.622.7077 Email: dclopp@mainecahc.orgwww.mainecahc.org "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhuman." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Darcy Shargo Health Policy Advocate Consumers for Affordable Health Care P.O. Box 2490 Augusta, ME 04338-2490 Phone: 207.622.7083 or 207.622.7045 Fax: 207.622.7077 E-mail: dshargo@mainecahc.org Website: www.mainecahc.org HelpLine: 1.800.965.7476

Thank Senator Marrache for her Support

Dear MSEA-SEIU Member, Last year, the Maine Heritage Policy Center launched a website listing the names and pay of all state employees, retirees, and contractors. While we all recognize that pay information should be public, members were outraged that their names were published on the internet. Maine Senate Assistant Majority Leader Lisa Marrache of Waterville offered to sponsor a bill to protect names from disclosure, and has been a passionate advocate for this cause. She is under attack today for her courageous stand on this issue, and we need to back her up. We need to stand up for our friends and allies. If you’re tired of the attacks on public workers, and tired of having your name and pay on the internet, please do the following: Call or write Senator Marrache and thank her for her support. Leave a message for her at 1-800-423-6900 or 287-1515. Send her a note at: http://www.mainesenate.org/marrache/email.htm Call or email the members of the Judiciary Committee and tell them to support LD 1353, “An Act Regarding Salary Information for Public Employees.”

Join us for the hearing on the bill, Thursday, April 30 at 1:00 pm before the Judiciary Committee, State House Room 438. In Solidarity, Bruce Hodsdon, President MSEA-SEIU Local 1989

Health Insurance Transparency Bill Hearing - Monday, April 13

A bill, LD 1205, sponsored by Representative Sharon Treat is coming up for public hearing April 13th at 1:00 PM at the Business, Research, & Economic Development Committee Room 208 in the Cross Office Building. We'd like you to join us and tell your health care story at the hearing to show why this "Health Care Bill of Rights" is needed. The bill calls for insurers to give us more information so that we can make better choices for ourselves and our families.

• Have you wanted to compare which insurance plan would be best for you, but couldn't get the information from the insurance companies to do so?
• Have you thought that something was covered, and then gotten a bill after the fact because it wasn't actually covered in your plan?
• Do you have a hard time understanding the information you get from your insurance company?
• Have your insurance costs gone through the roof , but you can't get an explanation why or an opportunity to do anything about it?
• Have you wondered how much of your premium goes toward actual medical care?

If you answered "yes" to any of these, come out to support LD 1205. This bill asks insurance companies to address these questions and more. If you plan to attend the above hearing, please contact Doug Clopp, at dclopp@mainecahc.org or 207-622-7083. That way we can coordinate our efforts and make sure everyone's voice is heard! If you can't attend but still have a statement you'd like the Insurance and Financial Services Committee to hear, write it up and email it to us. We will make sure it is read at the hearing. If you'd like to read more about the hearing or bill click here. As health care consumers, we are the ultimate payers of all health care and coverage bills. We should have the right to the information that will allow us to make better health care decisions and spend our money more wisely! Thank you for your help in achieving quality, affordable health care for all Maine people!

LD 1059 Meets with Success in Insurance and Financial Services

I am so glad to report that we have another small victory in this ongoing battle to gain health care insurance for Maine's DCWs! Yesterday at the work session, Geoff Green, Deputy Commissioner of DHHS spoke in support of our efforts. He said, "DHHS is strongly supportive." DHHS wants to do a further study into the Montana Plan. He said that Medicaid does not allow a draw down match to start up a pilot. He said the Department wants to work further with the Center for Medicare Services to figure this out. He asked for more time and said the Department is "willing to commit." He told the committee that more time is needed to develop this, more time than this legislative session allows. The committee wants DHHS to come back with specifics on the plan. Green told them that pilots are hard to set up, he wants to work with stakeholders, it is early in the process, and that it is hard to say how long this will take. Here's the best part, IFS 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. Joyce Gagnon, from Maine PASA, Roy Gedat from the Direct Care Alliance, and I are sending thank you notes to all those involved in this, from the staffers in the Speaker's and Senate President's offices, to those on the Insurance and Financial Services Committee, to Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman, Trish Riley from the Governor's office, DHHS Commissioner Brenda Harvey, DHHS Deputy Commissioner Geoff Green, and our bill sponsor, Senator Nancy Sullivan. 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. I hope all of you have a wonderful Easter Sunday.

LD 1059 and LD 1078 Hearings

These two bills had their public hearings this past Monday. LD 1059 was heard in the legislative committee of Insurance and Financial Services. LD 1078 was heard in the Health and Human Services Committee. After sitting through the hearings of two bills before 1059, our turn came about noon time. I was going to wish the committee a good morning, but ended up with a good afternoon instead. The hearing itself went great. Many speakers from the Direct Care Worker Coalition spoke in favor of the bill. There was no one speaking against it. Where it was so late in being heard, many workers had to leave. Their testimony was submitted to the clerk and Dan Koehler, KVO’s former lead organizer, spoke on their behalf, letting the committee know that they had to leave to get back to work. Superintendent of Insurance Mila Kofman spoke at the end, neither in favor, nor opposed. She wanted the committee to understand that the current way the bill is drafted will not work. The current language of the bill is directing Insurance and Financial Services to set up a pilot project with Medicaid money. First, Insurance and Financial Services does not handle Medicaid money. Second, this is an issue for DHHS. Ms. Kofman informed the Insurance and Financial Services Committee of this. The Committee had questions that Ms. Kofman could not answer. They were questions for DHHS. The DHHS spokesperson, Dianna Scully, from the Office of Elder Services, had left the committee room, by the time Ms. Kofman was speaking. So, no one from DHHS was available to answer questions that Ms. Kofman could not. That was extremely aggravating. Where that hearing ran over, I missed the rally for LD 1078. I did make it into the hearing in order to testify. That went great. Ted Rippy, 771’s secretary, also testified on behalf of this bill. He was fantastic! 771 is lucky to have such a great leader as Ted. He’s another true advocate for this workforce. I noticed DHHS Commissioner Brenda Harvey’s note taker in the crowd in the hearing room. After I testified, I went and told her that we need someone from DHHS in the work session on 1059 in Insurance and Financial Services. There were a lot of folks testifying in favor of LD1078. I hope the committee really heard what the testifiers were saying. The recurring theme was that people want to stay in their own homes as long as they can, whether disabled or elderly. That was the message, loud and clear. I just hope that the committee members heard what was being said. The next step in the process is the work session on both these bills. I think 1078’s was this afternoon. I’m not sure what happened as I was working and could not be there. Tomorrow, LD 1059’s work session is scheduled for 1 pm in IFS. But, we managed to gain a delay in the work session so that DHHS can help us with the proper language of the bill. The delay is good. It will give Commissioner Harvey and the other key players in this a chance to come up with a plan for health insurance for direct care workers. One plan being looked at is the Montana plan. It is basically a Medicaid enhancement that provides a higher rate of reimbursement to providers that take the extra enhancement and turn it directly into health care insurance for their workers. Imagine?! I’ve found more information on the Montana plan at the Health Care for Health Care Workers website. Click on the link and scroll down until you see State Analysis. Under that, you'll see Montana. Under that is the link for the PDF file to view. This plan went into effect this past January. It is insuring roughly 900 of Montana’s direct care workers. We should be able to do this here too.