Nancy Bonk

Testimony-Budget Hearing

January 3rd

My name is Nancy Bonk and my daughter Kara has a physical disability and receives personal care services through the Medicaid Waiver. She needs assistance with everyday things that you and I take for granted.

Imagine your morning routine. You wake up, you go to the bathroom, you take a shower, you get dressed, you fix your hair, and somewhere in there you probably get a cup of coffee. All of these things you do so regularly in the morning, you could do them half asleep. But Kara needs assistance with each of these things. She needs help just to use the restroom, she can't do it on her own.

That's why the Medicaid Waiver is so important- she qualifies for a certain number of hours of personal care and we get to hire whomever we want and train them for Kara's specific needs. This program is great!

You might think being a personal care assistant is an easy job, but it's not. You need real skills to do this job, you can't just hire someone off the street. You have to be really good with people to be able to perform such an intimate tasks as bathing and bowel care. PCAs have to be intelligent, patient, and sensitive. They also have to be able to adequately deal with skin wounds and be on top of the health needs of the consumer.

Most importantly, if you are going to rely on someone to help you use the restroom, you really need that person to be happy with their job. There is not enough money in the world to pay these PCAs what they are worth, but paying them only $8.60 an hour is a joke. The must be equally compensated for the work that they do. In our society, money is that compensation, and $8.60 an hour is just a disgrace.

The most difficult part of hiring a PCA is that when we finally do find someone who is willing to do the job and actually good at it, we can't keep them for very long. Anyone who really has the skills to do the job immediately starts looking around for a better job that pays more and has benefits. A lot of the good PCAs we find are mothers with children. They can't support a family on this wage and we really can't blame them for moving on.

I am here today for Kara and for all of her current and future PCAs- and for all the PCAs here in the room today- this is the situation that we all face. As long as this job is underpaid, seniors and people with disabilities will be at risk each day of not getting the care that they need.

If PCAs earn living wage that encourages more long term employment and better care. If PCAs stick around and do their job, that saves the state money on hospital costs and the cost of having to have someone in a nursing home. This program really can save the state money, but it has to be adequately funded.

I am asking you, because you have the power to shift the funding towards homecare, towards the PCAs that do the most important job. Please support budget amendments for a higher reimbursement rate and assistance to purchase health insurance for consumer-directed personal care assistants. Please, do what's right!