In an end-of-the-year gift for home care workers in Connecticut, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved federal funding for the home care personal care attendant (PCA) contract. This will allow PCAs, for the first time, to have access to a stipend to offset the cost of purchasing health insurance, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1199NE disclosed Tuesday.
“We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Governor Lamont and his team for their hard work in shepherding this contract through CMS for funding approval,” SEIU 1199NE President Rob Baril said in a statement. “This is a significant step towards lifting long-term care workers out of poverty and providing them with the economic justice they deserve.”
CMS’ approval also will provide up to five days of paid time off per year. And it will allow for a 6% retroactive lump sum bonus for all hours worked from April 2021 through March 2022. The bonus is scheduled to be paid by January 9, 202, SEIU 1199NE said. The stipend lets PCAs purchase insurance in the exchange marketplace, and eligible PCAs working full-time would receive $1,950 per year towards their personal health insurance payments.
In total, state funds add up to approximately $22 million for these benefits, with an additional $28 million provided by the federal government. Over 2,000 of the 11,000 PCAs covered by the SEIU’s contract with the state of Connecticut could be eligible for the health insurance stipend, the union estimates.
“This funding is an investment in economic, racial and gender justice,” Baril said. “The home care industry, whose workforce is majority women and people of color here in Connecticut, is rapidly growing. We will keep working with state leaders like Gov. Lamont to make sure that these caregivers and their home care consumers will be able to meet their most basic needs as human beings to live with dignity.”
SEIU District 1199NE, the New England Health Care Employees Union, represents over 25,000 caregivers in Connecticut and some 4,000 in Rhode Island.
