Maine’s chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans announced this week it is endorsing the citizens’ ballot initiative for universal home care that will go before voters this November.
“Health care is a right”, said Don Berry, president of the organization made up of around 3,000 retired workers from across the state. The alliance, which was founded by retired union members and is affiliated with the Maine AFL-CIO, is backing the referendum because they say it aligns with their advocacy for a national universal healthcare program and because it would establish caregiving as a viable profession from which a person could earn a living wage.
“People can’t just do it out of the kindness of their heart,” said Berry. “The people who have it in their heart to do that kind of work, they have to leave it, because they just can’t afford to live.”
Home care workers in Maine make $10-12 an hour, with annual earnings amounting to an average of $12,500 each year, according to research from the Washington, D.C.-based firm PHI, which focuses on solutions for eldercare and disability services. One in five homecare workers live in poverty and over half rely on public assistance.
Doris Poland, a retired school librarian from Windham, and her husband, Wayne, a retired post office worker, both support the initiative. Doris is frustrated by what she sees as inaction by her representatives in Augusta and feels a ballot referendum is the only way to address the care needs of Maine’s aging population.
“People have to realize that the legislature is not their friend, in any way, shape or form,” she said.
The Polands’ 50-year-old son Joe has had disabilities since birth and receives home care through Medicaid. Joe’s needs are extensive, from feeding and getting dressed, to bathing, and physical therapy. A caregiver is with Joe five days each week, and for the remainder of the time he is looked after by his aging parents. “Those 40 hours a week that she’s here, it’s life,” Doris said. “Because without her we wouldn’t function.”
Joe’s caregiver, who is employed by an agency, has been working with the Polands for seven years. She is paid a low wage and receives no benefits. The Polands say they often give her gifts or bonuses and buy her a tank of gas when she takes Joe to the doctor in her own car. “These caregivers work their hearts out,” Doris said. “They’re the glue that holds families together, in a way.”
The Universal Home Care citizens’ initiative is the first program of its kind to be proposed nationwide. It would guarantee in-home care is available for all seniors and Mainers with disabilities who need it and would be funded by a tax on individual incomes above $128,400, which would impact the wealthiest 1.6 percent of individuals in the state.
The Maine AFL-CIO, which represents over 40,000 workers and retirees in Maine, has also endorsed the referendum.
The Polands, who are longtime AFL-CIO members, say that such a program would not only provide essential support to seniors and people with disabilities like their son but they feel it would also help set workforce standards for direct care workers. Due to inadequate wages, poor training, and a lack of job stability, turnover among caregivers is high.
Doris recalled a conversation with a friend in Windham. “She said to me ‘I can’t keep a decent caregiver’,” Doris said. “These caregivers do so much work and are not paid half of what they should be. You start paying them what they are worth, you’re going to start finding people who will stay and do the job.”
The Polands have three other children, whose support they say they will increasingly rely on as they age, even as they continue to care for Joe.
“It’s not much of a plan,” Doris admitted with a rueful laugh. She says a Universal Home Care program would benefit families like theirs. “Maine is getting older,” she said. “We’re going to, whether we like it or not, need more caregivers.”
Members of the Maine chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans. (Photo courtesy of ARA)
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