Steven Edelstein

PHI National Policy Director Steven Edelstein was featured as a guest commentator Feb. 9 on McKnight’s. In “Economic stimulus package should invest in direct-care workforce,” Edelstein presses for new investments in eldercare as Congress continues to debate the specifics of an economic recovery package.

He points out that the federal government is the primary payer for eldercare services, contributing 70 cents for every dollar on America’s rapidly aging population. He writes: “Now is the time for the government, which needs desperately to create jobs, to invest in growing and stabilizing the workforce needed to care for an aging America. By doing so, the government can jumpstart its economic recovery and at the same time make a down payment on America’s caregiving needs.”

While 40% of direct-care workers live in households that rely on some form of public benefits and the high turnover rate costs employers an estimated $5 billion annually,  Edelstein calls on the federal government to use the economic recovery package to:

• Improve direct-care jobs by improving compensation, with a target of ensuring that all direct-care workers earn at least $12 an hour and have health insurance.
• Target the eldercare/disability services industry in sectoral and workforce development efforts, directing federal training money toward direct-care worker training, job placement, and retention activities.
• Provide grants to states to enhance and upgrade the content of direct-care worker training and to expand and improve their training infrastructure.

He closes with saying, “A decade from now, when the economy has improved and demand for services has grown to record heights, we will not regret having invested in building a stable, quality caregiving infrastructure upon which all of us can depend.”