Sacramento - Assemblymember Jim Beall, Jr. assailed the Governor’s budget proposal to drastically cut key human services that vulnerable Californians are relying on during this vicious recession.
“These proposed cuts are inhumane and unconscionable at a time when people are struggling to survive,’’ said Beall, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Human Services. “This economy has pushed hundreds of thousands of Californians to the brink. If these cuts are ever enacted, it can shove them over the edge.’’
The Governor’s proposed cuts in health and human services includes gutting the In-Home Support Services program by nearly $1 billion during this budget year and the next. The recommendation would eliminate 87 percent of the 400,000 IHSS recipients who are disabled or elderly but are able to still live in their homes with the help of IHSS workers.
The proposal would severely limit eligibility and also reduce the state’s contribution to IHSS workers’ pay checks, most of whom make a minimum wage.
“This proposed cut to IHSS will cost taxpayers even more money because it will drive current recipients into more expensive nursing homes,’’ Beall said. “It defeats the reason why the program was set up to begin with.
“What’s more it will mean laying off thousands of tax-paying IHSS workers and sending them to the unemployment lines. It will hurt our already damaged economy.
“These giant cuts to CalWorks and child care programs that enable very low-income parents to stay employed are short-sighted and not only create more costs but put the brakes on California’s recovery.
“I hope the Governor reconsiders these cuts and works with the Democratic majority in the Assembly to fashion an equitable solution.’’
Reed Blinked
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This was not a great gamble.
Reed attempted to bet the pot with only a pair of Aces.
The stadium effort is right in the middle of a jungle of Major League ...
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1 comments:
IHSS - My son, now 28, spent 18 months in a local nursing home, after being critically injured in a MVA in June of 2007. After a blatant abuse issue, I packed up his things and brought him home with us. The nursing home was being paid between $7000 and $8000 each month for the 'care' they provided my son (multiply that by the rest of the over 90 residents at the nursing home...). Food that was very often inedible; feces on the light switches and door handles; he'd be in bed until noon on somedays, unchanged, uncleaned; missed medications; unexplained bruising; until the final issue, when two aides physically, emotionally and verbally abused him in the shower room. They were suspended for 3 days, pending the 'investigation' by the facility - the day they returned to work was the day I brought my son home.
I am now my son's caregiver. He has numerous physical injuries and limitations, and suffered brain injuries in the car crash. He is unable to be left on his own, due to cognitive issues. I am paid through IHSS, by the State of California, to be my son's caregiver - he requires Protective Supervision (which was granted only after two state hearings). He is never left alone, is always with either myself or my husband. For this, the state pays me for 283 hours per month, at $9 an hour. Before taxes, etc, that comes to $2547 per month - for 24/7 care. He's not missed a meal or a pill in the 10 months he's been at home. His mental state has improved greatly, and we're working on improving his pain issues. 'Life' in a nursing home is not 'life' at all. It's maintenance -
I know that the IHSS program has come under fire for fraud, etc. And I'm sure there is a degree of fraud (there's probably a certain degree of fraud in any program). Investigate me as much as you want - just as long as every single other IHSS provider is investigated, too. I didn't go into this line of work because I thought it would be a lucrative career - I am in it because my son suffers every single day due to the negligence of another person, and I want his life as free from worry and stress as possible. I've jumped through the hoops - gotten fingerprinted, filled out the myriad of forms, etc, etc, etc. My son NEEDS me to be here for him 24/7. Going into a nursing home is not an option - I already carry enough guilt for the time he's already spent in one of those places.
I'd love to hear the position of candidates for California Governor on the IHSS program? Do I have to worry that it won't be available to us, and that we risk losing our home because of that?
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