California Advocates Protest Home Care Budge Cuts
Steve Gold
SteveGoldADA@cs.com writes:
As some of you all may know, the disability community in CA is under a major
attack from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (aka Terminator). The entire
homecare system in this State is in grave danger and may not survive. Are you
ready for this struggle in YOUR State?
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The Oakland Tribune
Care cuts may hit home hard.
Crowd in Oakland voices concerns about Arnold's plan to slash program for
disabled
By Rebecca Vesely, STAFF WRITER
Thursday, April 08, 2004 - About 400 disabled and elderly people and their
caregivers from across the region packed a town hall meeting in downtown
Oakland on Wednesday to voice their concerns about a state budget proposal to
slash in- home care services.
Those attending -- many in wheelchairs and requiring assistance - said Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan to cut wages, benefits and eligibility for
in-home supportive services, or IHSS, would be devastating.
"This 'terminator' -- he's out to terminate us," said Blane Beckwith, a
48-year-old Berk-eley resident who requires around-the-clock care.
The IHSS program assists low-income blind, disabled or elderly people so they
can stay in their homes. Care includes housework, running errands bathing,
feeding and giving medication.
The governor's budget proposes cutting caregiver wages from $9.50 an hour to
mini-mum wage of $6.75 an hour and eliminating their health benefits. Parents,
spouses and other relatives could no longer get paid through the program. The
county authority that screens workers and provides training would be
eliminated.
About 75,000 people state-wide would lose care, at a savings of $365 million
next fiscal year. In Alameda County, about 3,800 caregivers would see their
wages and benefits slashed, and services for 1,650 disabled blind and elderly
would be eliminated, said Charles Calavan, executive director of Alameda
County's Public Authority for IHSS.
Pamela Simmons of Oakland has been a caregiver to Elnora Jackson for six
years. Simmons said she needs the health benefits provided through her work
for IHSS. "It would be hard for me to get medical benefits on my own because I
am diabetic; I wouldn't qualify," she said.
State Senate Majority Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, promised to appeal to his
colleagues to take the IHSS cuts off the table. "I don't want this on my
conscience, or the conscience of the Legislature," he said. "Lord knows your
lives are hard enough without us adding more misery."
Hearings on the state budget will be held later this month. Health and Human
Services Secretary Kim Belshe has said cuts to IHSS -- a program that has
grown 52 percent in five years to 300,000 enrollees - are necessary because of
the state's $15 billion deficit.
Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker choked up while speaking to the
audience. "It's very emotional for me to sit here in this room," she said. "I
know it was a long fight to get reasonable wages and benefits."
Carla Christensen of San Lorenzo sat in the front row listening, leaning
against her 13-year-old son Bond's wheelchair. When Bond was one year old, he
contracted a rare parasitic disease that "did a Pac-Man number through his
brain" she said, and left him blind and disabled. Christensen quit her job and
is his around-the-clock caregiver. She earns $1,159 a month through IHSS for
122 of those hours.
The IHSS money is critical for Christensen and her husband, who works as a
doorman in downtown San Francisco, to afford the mortgage payment on their
house. She fears they will lose their house if the proposed budget cuts go
through. "It's hard for me to comprehend that in an atmosphere of family
values, minor children seem like they're being the first ones hit," she said.
"I can understand everyone has to do their bit in hard times, but don't pick
on them first."
Contact Rebecca Vesely at
rvesely@angnewspapers.com
# # #
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Last Updated on
04/23/04
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