“I care for the seniors, but I care just as much for my co-workers and those who are looking to come into this profession. We need your help to invest in the direct care workforce,” hospice nurse aide Brenda Nachtway told the Pennyslvania House Aging and Older Adult Services Committee on April 2 (see video above). Nachtway, who is co-chair of the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association, was one of several direct-care workers, employers, and other stakeholders to testify at a public hearing on the direct-care workforce.
Nachtway testified (pdf) that the growing care gap makes it urgent that lawmakers – especially state lawmakers – mandate and finance better training, wages, and benefits for workers. “Most direct-care workers will say that they don’t do this for the pay. At an average wage of $10 per hour that should be self-evident,” she said. “We do it because we love our jobs, we love the seniors. We are caring and compassionate people. But we also need to be valued, respected – and, yes, paid what we are worth.
“When 2 out of every 5 direct care workers don’t have health insurance, how can we be expected to return, day in and day out, to care for those seniors that need us so much?” she added.
Last month, the Pennsylvania House passed a bill (pdf) that would make affordable health care accessible to more Pennsylvanians, including thousands of direct-care workers. The vote was 118-81.
Tracy Lawless and Simone Baer of PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign have worked diligently over the past year, teaming with the state’s health care reform coalitions and people who have a stake in our long-term care system, to educate advocates and legislators on this issue. In the week before the House vote they jumped into even higher gear, making a tremendous grassroots push to reach direct-care workers and employers statewide, as well as general health care advocates in the western part of PA.
Tracy and Simone were extremely savvy in their approach, having matched everyone they called to their legislators in the weeks prior. While the House debated the bill on March 12, they watched the debate live on the Internet and called advocates when their representatives were speaking on the floor, asking them to phone or email and urge their representatives to vote for the bill.
Tracy, Simone, and Anna, their intern, talked to approximately 120 workers and employers and several hundred health care advocates who agreed to call their representative on the spot. Another 1,500 stakeholders and advocates received a phone call or email over the past two days from our super PA team.
