Letters: Readers Respond

Home-care workers need help, too

October 18, 2008

We found Michael Vitez's story about Karen Goroncy, a home-care worker who has no health insurance, and her client, Larry Smith, heart-wrenching but all too familiar ("Falling Through: A caregiver is denied medical care," Oct. 6).

Clients such as Larry often lose home-care attendants because attendants need jobs that provide health-care benefits and fair wages. CEOs and union officials don't always see eye to eye, but we're joining here to ask Pennsylvania to create a Consumer Workforce Council (CWC) made up of seniors and people with disabilities and focused on improving long-term, home-based care instead of more expensive nursing-home care.

Story continues below.

The council would ensure that home-care attendants could earn health benefits and better wages while not jeopardizing consumer control of home-care services. CWCs have saved money in other states.

Thomas H. Earle
CEO, Liberty Resources, Inc.
Jesse Wilderman
Executive vice president,
SEIU Healthcare
Pennsylvania

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