Developing Quality Care through Quality Jobs: Expanding Affordable Coverage to New York State’s Direct-Care Workers

In New York State, home care workers––including home health aides, home care aides, and personal care attendants––provide necessary home-based care and support to the elderly and disabled.

Grantee Name

PHI (formerly Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute)

Funding Area

Expanding Health Care Coverage

Publication Date

March 2010

Grant Amount

$108,810

Grant Date:

December 2007 – March 2009

Expanding Health Care Coverage

In New York State, home care workers—including home health aides, home care aides, and personal care attendants—provide necessary home-based care and support to the elderly and disabled.

Yet, because of the fluctuating nature of their work they are ineligible for Medicaid, and as many as one in three of these workers either lack health insurance or are inadequately insured.

Outcomes and Lessons Learned

  • Staff members faced many challenges with this project including low a survey response rate and inability to demonstrate success in ensuring continued and expanded health coverage benefits for home care workers. They did, however, accomplish the following goals:
  • Surveyed a sample of New York’s home care agencies with a response rate of 17.8%.
  • Documented the health insurance issues faced by workers of these agencies, which found that 90% of employers believe health insurance is “essential” or “important” to the recruitment and retention of home care workers; and public agencies, which are primarily located upstate, are more likely than for-profit and nonprofit agencies to offer health care coverage.
  • Created a roadmap for policymakers using these recommendations based on data retrieved by the home care workers.

Read the reports associated with this grant: