Letters: Readers Respond
Home-care workers need help, too
We found Michael Vitez's story about Karen Goroncy, a home-care worker who has no health insurance, and her client, Larry Smith, heart-wrenching but all too familiar ("Falling Through: A caregiver is denied medical care," Oct. 6).
Clients such as Larry often lose home-care attendants because attendants need jobs that provide health-care benefits and fair wages. CEOs and union officials don't always see eye to eye, but we're joining here to ask Pennsylvania to create a Consumer Workforce Council (CWC) made up of seniors and people with disabilities and focused on improving long-term, home-based care instead of more expensive nursing-home care.
The council would ensure that home-care attendants could earn health benefits and better wages while not jeopardizing consumer control of home-care services. CWCs have saved money in other states.
Thomas H. Earle
CEO, Liberty Resources, Inc.
Jesse Wilderman
Executive vice president,
SEIU Healthcare
Pennsylvania
