PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
June 24, 2009

Contact: Steve Edelstein
National Policy Director
Phone: 718-402-7413
Email: sedelstein@phinational.org

PHI Launches PolicyWorks
National Strategy Center for the Direct-Care Workforce Promotes Information, Innovation and Action

New York— By 2016, the United States will need 4 million direct-care workers to care for America’s elders and people with disabilities—more than the number of teachers needed to educate our youth in grades K-12.

Yet America is unprepared to meet this growing demand. Public policies have created a delivery system for paid care that relies on a low-skilled, low-wage workforce to provide essential supports. Committed, caring workers bypass these occupations or leave them when better opportunities are available. The result is a system plagued by high turnover and vacancies, poorly equipped for supporting the quality of life of millions of Americans of all ages with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

PHI PolicyWorks, an online strategy center, provides users with innovative policy tools to address this historic challenge. The goal of PolicyWorks is to promote national and state policy solutions that strengthen the direct-care workforce and prepare our nation to care for growing numbers of elders and people with disabilities.

PHI National Policy Director Steve Edelstein notes that “the time is right for a coordinated effort to transform the public policies that shape this vital workforce. We need to develop healthcare and workforce policies that can bear the weight of our nation’s growing need for eldercare/disability services.”

Improving the quality of direct-care jobs is key to three issues of critical importance for all Americans:

• Economic development: Direct-care workers constitute arguably the largest workforce in the country, and creating quality jobs for these workers will sustain families and communities, and help restore our economy.
• Access to care: Addressing the high rates of direct-care worker vacancies and turnover is essential to ensuring that American families have access to sufficient numbers of well-trained and supported paid caregivers to provide needed services.
• Quality of care: Direct-care workers provide 70 to 80 percent of the paid hands-on daily care and support received by elders and people with disabilities. Policymakers cannot ensure the quality of these services without addressing the quality of these jobs.

PHI President Steven L. Dawson noted, “As the nation gears up to reform its health care system, PolicyWorks will be an important resource. PHI’s PolicyWorks staff will use their expertise to analyze reform proposals and make recommendations to ensure that America has a health care system that adequately provides for the needs of increasing numbers of people with chronic care needs.”

PHI PolicyWorks gives users access to up-to-date statistics, timely research and analysis, strategic legislative and regulatory recommendations, and advocacy tools and resources. Staffed by PHI’s national and state policy experts, the site features:

• Strategic areas: Frameworks for understanding the leading policy issues affecting direct-care workforce policy and the quality of eldercare/disability services.
• Workforce Facts: An introduction to the demographics, size, and economic impact of the direct-care workforce.
• PHI Policy Recommendations: Strategic recommendations on national health care reform efforts and other critical issues affecting direct-care workers.
• Guide to Accessing Federal Recovery Act Funds: Tools for tapping into unprecedented new public employment and training monies for programs to recruit, train and support direct-care workers.
• Health Reform Resource Center: Information and resources regarding how to achieve quality, affordable health care coverage for all Americans, including elders and people with disabilities and those who care for them.
• PHI Chart Gallery: Easily downloadable charts that visually summarize key data on the direct-care workforce.

PolicyWorks complements PHI’s National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce, an on-line library which houses nearly 1000 research papers and other documents supporting quality care through quality jobs.

PHI works to improve the lives of people who need home and residential care—and the lives of the workers who provide that care.

On Friday, June 19, the House Committees on Education and Labor, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce released an 850-page discussion draft (pdf) of their health care reform proposal along with a four-page summary document (pdf).

An AP story summarized the draft legislation by saying it would “impose new responsibilities on individuals and employers to get coverage, end insurance company practices that deny coverage to the sick, and create a new government-sponsored plan to compete with private companies” (“Democrats try to regain health care momentum,” June 19).

An additional document released by the committees titled “What’s in the Health Reform Bill for You?” (pdf) lists “12 ways health care reform will help you and your family” — and groups them into four main categories:

• Lower Costs
• Greater Choice
• Stability & Peace of Mind
• Higher Quality

Speaking at a press conference, Rep. George Miller, Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, said, “Today marks a historic moment in America’s urgent quest to fix our broken health insurance system.

“Our discussion draft is the first step in delivering on the fundamental change that President Obama has called for, and that families and businesses need, by building a truly American solution to reduce costs, offer real choice, and guarantee affordable, quality health care for all.”

Watch the full press conference:

On Tuesday, June 23, PHI will join other members of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA), in a National Call-in Day to send a clear message to Congress that a strong eldercare workforce is essential to real health reform.

As an advocate for quality long-term care, your Member of Congress needs to hear from you!

Please DO NOT CALL before Tuesday, June 23.

Details are available on the Eldercare Workforce Alliance website.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Fifteen U.S. Democratic senators have sent a letter to Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Hilda Solis urging the extension of federal wage and hour laws to cover the nation’s estimated 1.5 million home health-care workers.

Background

Domestic workers were excluded from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that was enacted in 1938 to ensure a minimum standard of living for workers through the provision of a minimum wage, overtime pay and other protections. Continue Reading

A delegation of state lawmakers, representing 700 of their colleagues across the nation, delivered letters to the Obama administration and Congress on Thursday, June 18, supporting comprehensive health care reform, including a public plan option, affordability protections, and shared employer responsibility for premiums. Continue Reading

Official seal of ARRA

As states struggle to balance their budgets in the face of a deep recession, there has been little good news for long-term care.

At least three states, however — North Dakota, Montana, and Oregon — are using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to stabilize and enhance their direct-care workforces. Continue Reading