SEIU
Stronger Together

[left margin names. titles illegible]

ANDREW L STERN

ANNA BURGER

PATRICIA ANN FORD

EUSEO MEDINA

TOM WOODRUFF

SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION
AFL-00 CLC

1313 L Street NW.
Washington D.C. 20005

202.899.3200

TDD: 702.898.3481

[letter begins]

September 12, 2002

Dear SEIU Leader:

I am writing to you to share our recent discussions with ADAPT (Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) and other members of the disability rights movement around changes in home care and the Medicaid Community-based Attendant Services and Supports Act (MICASSA) legislation in particular.

In an effort to strengthen alliances with consumers of services for people with disabilities and to broaden support for increased federal and state funding of consumer-directed personal attendant services, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has endorsed MiCASSA (S.12981H.R.3612), for the following reasons.

SEIU worked closely with consumers to develop its public authority model, pioneered In Califomia and now underway in Washington and Oregon. The public authority is a model for states looking to address workforce issues in a manner that links consumer direction with a voice at work for personal attendants. Our endorsement of MICASSA shows our sincere interest in working with ADAPT and other disability rights organizations at the national level as we have at the stale level on numerous occasions to pursue an agenda that promotes consumer choice and improves working conditions for personal assistants. We believe this goal is best accomplished through a consumer-oriented long-term care financing system that recognizes the rights of workers to organize.

The current Medicaid system lacks a clear directive in Hs .policies and procedures that give consumers who need personal care a choice of long-term services and supports. Some call this "Institutional bias,- arguing that the greater share of Medicaid funding is apportioned to institutional services rather than to home and community-based services.

Finally, as our nation ages, the baby boom generation will bring numbers and additional poidical influence to the consumer movement in long-term care. ADAPT and other consumer advocacy organizations are well positioned to mobilize consumers and to
contribute the kind of grassroots leadership that will make change happen. In addition to 250,000 home care members, our union includes working families who will continue to confront disability and aging issues. As the nation's largest home care union as well as the largest health care union, SEIU has taken the lead in building a system that provides workers with better pay, benefits and more secure jobs. In partnership, workers and consumers are uniquely positioned to create a system that expands publicly funded home and community-based services and puts consumer interests ahead of provider profits in long-term care.

The legislative changes included in MICASSA provide an opportunity for Medicaid-eligible consumers to choose between institutional services and home and community-based services and supports to meet their personal care needs. As an incentive to make these changes, stales that adopt the consumer-directed model of community-based services and supports specified in the bill would receive an enhanced Medicaid match for up to five years. A "hold harmless" clause in the legislation prevents reduction of Medicaid funding for existing home and community based supports. There is also some competitive grant funding for states to use to make improvements to consumer-directed personal assistance programs.

We have much to gain from working cooperatively with the disability rights community. Both labor and disability rights groups have a proud history of struggle against formidable odds. In this spirit, I am asking that you make the MiCASSA legislation a topic of discussion with your officers, staff and members. Please consider joining ADAPTs national and stale efforts to bring changes to the long-term care system that help us build a partnership between consumers of home care services and working families. For more Information, please contact the SEIU Home Care Division at 202-89B-3275.

In Solidarity,

[signed] Andrew S. Stein
[typed] Andrew S. Stein
International President

Created on

Thursday 18 July 2013

Posted on

Sunday 22 November 2020

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