Campaign to Address the Long-term Care Crisis in the Valley

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Priority #1: Better Care Through Better Jobs

In an effort to address the first priority lifted up in the Round Table Meetings, KVO joined the statewide Direct Care Worker Coalition in supporting L.D. 1687 in the Maine Legislature, "An Act to Increase Health Insurance Coverage for Front-line Direct Care Workers Providing Long-term Care."

We called it the Health Care for Health Care Workers Bill.

Research showed that 40% of direct care workers in home care, and 25% of direct care workers in nursing homes do not have health insurance. Many of those who have insurance are covered by state-administered Medicaid, which is subject to limited state budgets and changing political winds. The fact that the very people who provide such intimate health care for our communities’ elderly, disabled, and chronically ill members often do not have access to health care themselves is a glaring injustice, notwithstanding the impact it has on recruitment and retention of quality workers in these essential jobs.

Download a fact sheet here put together by the Direct Care Worker Coalition.

KVO leaders organized grassroots support for LD 1687 by (among other things) writing letters to the editor, meeting with individual legislators, testifying at public hearings, and publishing a booklet of personal stories of those affected – as workers, consumers, and family caregivers – by the low pay and benefits in long-term care.