by Assemblymember Mariko Yamada
Rural Californians face challenges that differ from residents in urbanized areas. Along with beautiful views and wide open spaces come limits in public transportation, fewer jobs, and less access to health care providers.
Contained in Governor Brown’s May Revised budget proposal is an item that deals another blow to seniors and persons with disabilities, especially in rural areas. This proposal should be rejected. Here’s why:
Circumventing a recent federal ruling that brought the state’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) caregivers under the same overtime pay rules that govern nearly every other industry, Governor Brown has proposed prohibiting this low-wage workforce from working more than 40 hours in a week. The limit would have a devastating effect to California’s 422,000 IHSS recipients, particularly in rural communities.
One of my constituents is Noel S. She is a blind 26-year old who suffers from severe mental disabilities, and whose mother, Marilyn S., has been caring for her around-the-clock since birth. Both survive on minimal authorized IHSS wages. Noel’s mother, her primary caregiver, is paid for the maximum number of hours allowable under current IHSS regulations, 260 hours per month, to keep Noel out of nursing home placement. The rest of her care is unpaid.
Under the Governor’s plan, a person with chronic conditions or with a severe disability who requires more than 40 hours of care per week must find an alternative caregiver or rely on a state-run temporary pool to assign workers. Limiting Noel’s mother work week is problematic. Besides the “transfer trauma” in transitioning to another caregiver at the end of a theoretical 8-hour shift, this family’s remote, rural location, along with the low IHSS-wage, pose significant barriers to accessing quality care. Anyone who has ever cared for a loved one with disabilities also understands that attending to their needs does not always fit an arbitrary “clock-time”.
California’s rural communities are already challenged by health disparities. Older rural adults have higher rates of obesity, physical inactivity and food insecurity than their urban counterparts. These factors drive higher heart disease and diabetes rates in rural areas. (UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, 2011)
The IHSS program is essential for California’s strategy to reduce health care costs by better managing chronic conditions and preventing costly complications that result in hospitalization and nursing home care. The Governor’s proposal undermines this commitment to our state’s aging and disabled populations, with troubling disparate impact on rural communities.
Governor Brown’s proposal also undermines the ability of IHSS consumers to make choices about who provides their care, a decades-long IHSS Program tenet often cited for the program’s success. His proposal threatens to leave severely disabled Californians without care and at-risk of costlier nursing home placement. The “temp-pool” concept is untested on a statewide scale, and there is no evidence as to the availability of caregivers willing to take clients if the job requires driving long distances to do a few hours of work at rates just above minimum wage.
While Governor Brown has championed the state’s economic recovery, California’s poorest residents have not recovered from years of devastating budget cuts made in the darkest hours of the state budget crisis. This is especially true in rural California, where the impact of crippling reductions still hamstring the most basic services like health clinics, public transportation for people with disabilities, or keeping rural roads open and accessible.
California’s budget is back on track, with a projected budget surplus of $6.3 billion to prove it. But our comeback can’t be made ON the backs of hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Californians. We must reject the Governor’s proposal to cap hours for IHSS caregivers and instead work to strengthen the IHSS program, which saves both money and lives.
Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) represents Davis and Yolo County in the Assembly and is Chair of the Assembly Aging and Long-Term Care Committee
Assemblymember Yamada wrote:
> Rural Californians face challenges that differ from residents in urbanized areas
True and since they typically vote Republican is anyone shocked that the poor in rural California are getting the short shift as a payback to the unions for votes (mostly in urban areas) and money.
you’re missing a key component. how do surban groups create political pressure? they meet, they organize, they lobby.
why do rural groups falter? they are spread out. they lack resources. they lack education. in short, they lack the means to organize. and they are relatively few in number.
so while you’re looking at partisanship, you should be looking at group dynamics.
btw, i’m not sure urban groups are much more effective.
“btw, i’m not sure urban groups are much more effective.”
With this I agree. Sadly in our society what is effective is money. I am not talking about corrupting officials or buying elections. I am talking about the ability to shape the message by getting your verson out non stop through various different forms of media. Those who can buy the most air time or magazine and newspaper space or who have the ability to hire those who are the most media savvy and proficient are going to have the advantage over everyone who does not share the advantage. This would apply to the economically disadvantaged whether they are urban or rural or somewhere in between.