PHI Releases Analysis of Home Health and Personal Care Aides
On Dec. 12, PHI published Caring in America: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Nation's Fastest-Growing Jobs: Home Health and Personal Care Aides, a new report that offers an analysis of the 2.5 million home care and personal assistance aides who provide long-term services and supports to elders and people living with disabilities in home and community-based settings.
The statistics on wages and health insurance coverage for direct care workers employed by home health agencies in this report highlights our view that we can not afford additional cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
According to the report:
- The median wage for a home health aide is $9.89 hour and $11.54 hour for a nurses aide, while the average wage for all U.S. workers is $16.27 hour.
- 26% of nurses aides have no insurance
- 37% of home health aides have no insurance compared to 18% of U.S. workers with no insurance.
- More than 50% of home health aides are working part-time. 56.2% of home health aides in 2009 relied on Medicaid or food stamps.
There is significant turnover in home health aides because of low wages, number of hours worked and transportation costs. The report also mentions that 19 states have no licensing for non-medical home care agencies, and that this situation has a negative impact on quality of care.
We are not prepared for the increase in older adults that we will need in home health services. Reductions in Medicaid and Medicare will further deteriorate the direct care workforce.