UDW/AFSCME Action Center

What's At Stake?

Will Homecare be an option for you or your loved one in the coming years - or will an institution be the only choice?

If you are providing care for someone in their home; if you have a loved one that is aging and faces the choice of living in an institution or staying at home with help; if you are disabled but want to stay, live, and work in your local community, then the fate of the IHSS program will impact you.

Do you know that homecare actually saves taxpayers money, and brings in jobs and federal funding to California?

WE HAVE TO SAVE HOMECARE
AS WE KNOW IT

Homecare has been an essential safety net for all Californians up until now.  If you were to experience catastrophic illness or accident and then lose employment it is hard to survive safely in your own home.  Many people do not have relatives who can afford to look after a loved one if it means quitting their own job.  This is also true for persons who are aging but do not want to live in an institution.  Up until now, Californians have had support through IHSS for this circumstance.

In Home Supportive Services helps low income elderly and disabled Californians to have help in their own home so they are not institutionalized.  IHSS saves taxpayers money in several ways:

• In Home care is at least SIX TIMES less costly than institutional care
• The IHSS program brings millions of dollars of funding from federal sources in to California (which California will lose if the program is cut)
• Homecare workers and their clients spend millions of dollars in local communities, supporting local businesses that also pay taxes
• IHSS provides jobs for hundreds of thousands of Californians. Home care providers pay millions in income and sales taxes.
• IHSS keeps these workers off of welfare and other social programs that cost taxpayer money

For some low income elderly or disabled Californians the support they get through having an IHSS provider come to their home is literally a life and death issue.  These persons should have the option of being supported in their own homes rather than being forced into state run nursing facilities or institutions, where notoriously horrific and inhumane conditions often prevail.  Homecare dollars should not have to compete with institutional care, but instead should be an equally funded choice for the consumer.

The In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program was created to provide that alternative, yet state budget issues are now threatening the program’s existence.

For the complete current update on state budget cuts to the IHSS program, to to the UDW website: www.udwa.org

TALKING POINTS

General

• Why is homecare important to you as a Californian?
• Do you have friends or family members that are personally impacted?

For Homecare Consumers:

• What would happen to you if  your services are reduced?
• Are you concerned about medical or environmental conditions in the home (cleanliness) that could be life-threatening if your provider’s authorized hours are reduced?
• Will you have to move or be institutionalized due to lowered authorized hours or pay rates to providers?
• Do new rules impact your eligibility for the IHSS Program or cause you to pay a Share of Cost that you did not pay before?
• Do changes to the IHSS Program impact your ability to work and support yourself?
• Have provider requirements (background checks, fingerprinting etc) made it more difficult to hire a new provider or keep your current worker?

For Homecare Providers:

• What will happen to your family, if your available earnings are cut?
• Do you know if you will lose your job if your client becomes ineligible or loses authorized hours?
• Will you have to get a second job to replace lost wages due to cuts?
• Will you have to give care to someone without being paid for it, in order to keep them out of an institution?
• Will you have to place a loved one in an institution?
• Will you have to quit homecare work?