The Direct Care News 
For direct care workers and their allies January 14, 2014
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The New Face of Our Economy: Direct Care Workers
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 | | Jessica Brill Ortiz |
Fifty years into the war on poverty, it's time to focus on direct care workers, explains DCA's Jessica Brill Ortiz in the Huffington Post. "As we work to advance the goals of the war on poverty, improving the economic security of direct care workers and their families should be at the top of the list, because improving direct care workers' wages, benefits and career advancement opportunities will let us accomplish three important goals," writes Jessica. "We can help ensure a stable, qualified direct care workforce large enough to meet growing demand. We can transform one of our fastest-growing job categories so that it bolsters our middle class and strengthens our economy instead of swelling the ranks of the working poor. And we can deliver on the promise of a nation where hard work is rewarded and respected." Her blog post outlines several current and pending policy initiatives that will help accomplish those goals.
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Get Direct Care Workers Covered
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 There's been quite a bit of coverage lately about direct care workers and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). About workers stuck in the "Medicaid gap" in states that have not expanded their programs:- Earning too little to qualify for Medicaid, unemployed Idaho home care worker Amy Workman must choose one of three tough options: Go without insurance, pay full price for a plan, or move to a state that expanded its Medicaid program.
- A home care worker in Maine has no health care coverage, thanks to her governor's decision not to expand Medicaid.
About workers who are getting covered themselves, helping others get covered, or both:
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Snowbound at the Chicken Farm
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 Just recently, something--a snowfall, maybe? Who knows?--surfaced a memory from a November day in 1997 when I shared a very special moment with one of the many elders I have cared for over the years. As I put the blind up that morning, I could see soft white snowflakes dancing in the light wind. The silent flakes covered the trees, outlining their shapes while slowly giving the brownish-gray bark of the skeletal trunks softer tones and shapes, coating branches and crevasses. Read the rest of Roberta Record's story. |
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A Family Member Thanks Her "Saving Grace," Direct Care Workers
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 | | Erin Hayes |
In a moving editorial for the Portland Press Herald, DCA board member Erin Hayes described her gratitude to the direct care worker who comes to her home every morning to help her husband, a C4/C5 quadriplegic, get ready for work.
"She has given Ben the independence that he deserves--independence from me." Erin writes. "Imagine your wife or even your mom caring for you every single day. How would that make you feel? Direct care workers help alleviate that burden, not just on family members but also on those who need the care.
"But direct care workers need help, too. Low government reimbursement rates, mostly through Medicaid and Medicare, for the services they provide mean low wages for these workers, who average around $10 an hour. Add to that inadequate training and little respect and support, and it is not surprising that it can be almost impossible to retain direct care workers." Read Erin's editorial.
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