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Quality Care Through Quality Jobs: Expanding Affordable Coverage to New York State’s Direct Care Workers
Summary
In New York State, home care workers—-including home health aides, home care aides, and personal care attendants—-provide necessary home-based care and support to the elderly and disabled. Yet, because of the fluctuating nature of their work they are ineligible for Medicaid, and as many as one in three of these workers either lack health insurance or are inadequately insured.
Grant Goals:
PHI anticipated that it would:
- Document the health insurance crisis faced by home care workers and employers in New York State.
- Provide a blueprint for key State officials and other stakeholders that would enable them to ensure coverage and expanded coverage for New York’s home care workers on a continuum.
- Evaluate the success of the initiative based on stakeholder recognition, and evidence that recommendations have been, or plan to be, implemented.
- Demonstrate success in sustainable and expanded health coverage benefits for the home care workforce.
Grant Outcomes:
Staff members faced many challenges with this project including low a survey response rate and inability to demonstrate success in ensuring continued and expanded health coverage benefits for home care workers. They did, however, accomplish the following goals:
- Surveyed a sample of New York’s home care agencies with a response rate of 17.8%.
- Documented the health insurance issues faced by workers of these agencies, which found that 90% of employers believe health insurance is “essential” or “important” to the recruitment and retention of home care workers; and public agencies, which are primarily located upstate, are more likely than for-profit and nonprofit agencies to offer health care coverage.
- Created a roadmap for policymakers using these recommendations based on data retrieved by the home care workers.
Grantee Information:
- Grantee Website: http://www.paraprofessional.org/
- Grant Amount: $108,810