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Q&A with Matt Yarnell, President, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania
SEIU members SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania
What are the crucial issues that need to be addressed for Pennsylvania to most effectively deal with its aging residents in the short- and long-term?
Unfortunately, right now there is only 1 home care worker for every 6 people who need in-home care services in Pennsylvania. We cannot meet this overwhelming need for quality home care with a workforce that cannot afford basic necessities like housing, food and transportation and that has no health insurance, and no time-off. At $13/hr, our home care workforce is currently earning poverty-level wages. This lack of investment in our caregiving workforce is driving a severe crisis for the overwhelming majority of seniors who would prefer to stay at home as they age.
What are some of the ways you/your organization are working to make that happen?
SEIU HCPA and home care workers have brought the fight for quality in-home care to the State Capitol and helped shape The Quality Homecare Act, which was introduced on June 3, by State Reps Jess Benham and Jason Ortitay. The next day, on June 4, hundreds of home care workers traveled from across the state to call for bipartisan support of the bill. Since 4 out of 5 of Pennsylvania's largest home care agencies are owned by private equity firms -whose profits grow by shrinking critical care - accountability for these public funds is needed. That's why the bill requires at least 80% of the total funds make it to our caregiving workforce, with annual reporting requirements to document the use of public funds and create an enhanced rate for home care agencies that invest at least 90% of their total reimbursement rate on their workers.
What is your elevator pitch to explain just how important adapting and optimizing how older Pennsylvanians live is to improving the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians?
Ultimately a better quality of life includes access to quality in-home care for our seniors. Our state’s seniors can only live in their homes with independence and dignity if we have a stable caregiving workforce. We are calling for bipartisan support of home care legislation that will increase state funding for personal assistance services and ensure public taxpayer funds make it to our caregiving workforce so that providers can offer competitive wages and meet the increasing demand. We must confront this staffing crisis head on, or our seniors will have even less access to in-home care.