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Home Care Workers in the News

October 31, 2013

Several articles on the home care workforce have been featured in the news since mid-October.

  • In Shutdown Delays Prep to Pay Health Aides More, published in Women’s eNEWS on October 28, Cassandra Leveille writes that due to the federal government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) postponed its regional webinars on the final home care regulation. Both PHI National Policy Director Steve Edelstein and National Employment Law Project Staff Attorney Sarah Leberstein are reported as saying that between now and January 1, 2015, when the new rule takes effect, DOL, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other agencies and organizations will need to reach out to home care workers and employers to help them understand the changes.
  • Sandy Butler and Luisa Deprez of the University of Maine and University of Southern Maine opine on how Maine’s decision to not expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act affects a home care worker. A Common Story: Caring for Others without Health Care for Oneself, published on October 25, is part of a series in the Bangor Daily News about people who are struggling to make ends meet and have been affected by state policy.
  • On October 18, the Huffington Post published 3 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Parents’ Care by Robyn Stone, executive director and senior vice president of the LeadingAge Center for Applied Research. Stone writes that family caregivers often supplement their care with paid caregivers, and that these workers usually are paid low wages, lack health care coverage, and have few training requirements. She encourages readers to advocate for better quality jobs for home care workers.

— by Deane Beebe

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