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The State House in Augusta, ME

Maine health care advocates are rallying in support of LD-400, a bill that would increase funding for home-based services and call on government agencies to develop a unified budget for the delivery of long-term care to elders and disabled adults (Bangor Daily News, March 3).

On March 3, advocates gathered in the state Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee room in Augusta to voice their support for the bill and for measures in general that would improve the state’s care for its elders. Read the full story

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If you’re looking for tools to help you explain why direct-care workers need better health care coverage, you might be interested the PHI Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign’s new video and updated website.

In the video The Most Dangerous Job in America, (click on image) CNA Catherine Lawrence and Health Care for Health Care Workers National Director Carol Regan talk about the high on-the-job injury rates that make direct-care work the most dangerous job in America – and the fact that nursing assistants are twice as likely as the average American to be uninsured. What’s wrong with that picture?

The Health Care for Health Care Workers website was recently redesigned to make it easier to find what you need - including fact sheets and other publications; personal stories from workers, employers, and consumers; descriptions of the campaign’s work in Iowa, Maine, Michigan, and Pennsylvania; and more.

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org

If you’re having some doubts about whether public perception of direct-care workers is improving, a recent run of insightful stories in local papers may give you some hope.

Two stories in Vermont papers, one in the April 7 St. Albans Messenger and one in the April 4 Brattleboro Reformer, covered a new study about the state’s growing direct-care worker shortage. Both amplified its message and recommendations, stressing the need for higher reimbursement rates to long-term care providers, so they can increase pay and benefits for direct-care workers. “If employers are having trouble now with hiring and retaining workers, we’re really going to see a shift in the next 10 to 12 years as the baby boomers turn 75 and older,” said Alexandra Olins, PHI’s northern New England regional director, in the Messenger article.

Read the full story