Debra Ness

In a statement delivered on April 21 at the Senate Finance Committee’s Roundtable on Delivery System Reform, Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families (NPWF), called for a patient-centered approach to the issue of national health care reform.

She singled out workforce reform as one of the most pressing areas of concern.

In her statement, she told the roundtable that “Americans stand today at a historic crossroads: Before us lies the opportunity to fix a health care system that is beset by high costs, inefficiencies and inadequate coverage.”

She continued, “As we advance reform, we must make patient-centered care our guiding light. . . . Whatever model we choose to deliver health care, it must take patients’ wants and needs into account.”

Ness asserted that one of the requirements for making any such legislation viable will be “an adequate workforce, appropriately trained, in sufficient numbers, and effectively deployed to meet the needs of our population, particularly those who have been traditionally underserved, and the rapidly growing number of individuals with multiple chronic conditions and geriatric syndromes.”

PHI spoke with Christine Bechtel, NPWF’s vice president, to learn more about the organization’s commitment to better jobs for health care workers.

“Health care and workplace issues are two things the organization has been interested in for 35 years,” Bechtel said, pointing out that NPWF was the group that drafted the Federal and Medical Family Leave Act, which has been crucial for women and families trying to balance work and family caregiving responsibilities. “For us,” she said, “health care and workforce issues come together on this issue.”

She also pointed to the enormous demographic shift that’s currently happening in the nation. “We have a huge number of people who are aging,” she said. “We really don’t have enough boots on the ground to care for patients and their families. And if we don’t have a workforce that is trained in geriatrics, we’ll be in real trouble.”

“Direct care workers,” she explained, “are critical because they help to control costs.”

Most importantly, she said, “As a women’s organization, we’re interested in any kind of economic improvement that will help women and families. If high quality jobs for direct-care workers improve economic security, help families, and also make the country better equipped for an aging population, then that’s a home run.”