A Reading lawmaker joined forces with Trucare Home Care to spread some Christmas cheer to Berks County patients.
State Rep. Manny Guzman and direct care workers on Thursday delivered holiday baskets to seniors who rely on care in their homes. The baskets were filled with ham, milk and basic pantry items for those who often don’t have family living nearby and may spend the holidays alone.
Officials from the Pennsylvania Homecare Association, the organization that helped coordinate the deliveries, said they hope the event brings attention to the growing home care crisis facing the state.
“More than 400,000 Pennsylvanians depend on home care, but chronic underfunding and low state reimbursement rates have pushed the system to a breaking point,” they said in a release. “Every month, more than 112,000 care shifts and 27% of authorized nursing hours go unfilled.”
They noted that Pennsylvania’s Medicaid rate for personal assistance services is just $20.63 per hour — the lowest in the region and far below what they believe is needed to recruit and retain workers.
Officials said that two independent studies have concluded that Pennsylvania must raise rates by at least 23% to stabilize access to care. Despite those findings, they said the most recent budget provides only $21 million for a small subset of workers and leaves 94% of the workforce — and the families who rely on them — behind.