(L-R) Ancil Alexander from Cooperative Home Care Associates; Joe Angelelli, Meghan Shineman, and Steven L. Dawson from PHI; and John Hale from the Iowa Caregivers Association
Dozens of eldercare workforce advocates and constituents went to Capitol Hill on September 15 to let Congress know that a strong eldercare workforce is essential to real health reform.
The Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA), co-chaired by Steven L. Dawson, PHI president, and Nancy Lundebjerg, vice president and chief operating officer of the American Geriatrics Society, organized the National Advocacy Day. EWA, a broad-based coalition of 29 national organizations representing all aspects of the health care delivery system, supports practical solutions to improve health care quality for older adults by strengthening the eldercare workforce.
EWA, with representatives of PHI and affiliates from five states, took to the Hill to express its dismay about inadequate federal efforts to develop and maintain a workforce that is competent to care for our nation’s growing aging population. Ancil Alexander, a direct-care worker from Cooperative Home Care Associates in New York, offered a personal perspective on the critical role direct-care workers play in the health care system. The group reinforced its message with a full-page ad in Roll Call, a publication targeted to Capitol Hill.
“Once we educated Congress members and staff about direct-care workers’ vital role in providing quality care, as well as the problems attracting and retaining staff due to poor benefits, wages, and training, they understood the urgency of the issue immediately,” Dawson said.
“Right now Congress is focused on health reform issues around providing coverage and who will pay. When Congress is ready to turn its attention to who provides care, EWA’s groundwork will help to move the issue onto their radar screen,” he added.
EWA is urging the legislators to retain and include provisions that focus on developing and maintaining the eldercare workforce in the final health reform bill. EWA is specifically calling on Congress (pdf) to retain provisions in the Senate HELP Committee’s Affordable Choices Act and the House Tri-Committee’s America’s Affordable Choices Act of 2009, and to enact health reform legislation that:
- Supports health professionals
- Supports the direct-care workforce
- Supports older adults remaining in their homes
- Supports personal care attendants
The EWA is further urging Congress to add provisions that would:
- Provide loan forgiveness for professional training in geriatrics and gerontological specialties
- Increase the federal match for all home and community-based services funded under Medicaid
