Health care aides’ pay can be cut, judge says in ruling

[kickysnana]

http://www.startribune.com/local/144310195.html

The state can impose a 20 percent pay cut on nearly 7,000 Minnesotans giving personal care assistance to low-income relatives, a district judge has ruled.

The Friday ruling by Ramsey County District Judge Dale Lindman reversed a temporary order he issued last fall blocking the cuts.

The eight home-care agencies that brought the lawsuit opposing the cuts plan to appeal Lindman's ruling, which found that a state law cutting payments to personal care assistants (PCAs) who were earning about $11 per hour in a federal-state Medicaid program does not violate the state constitution or the federal civil rights of the aides.

About 30 percent of aides in the Medicaid program are affected by the cuts, said Tim Plant, executive director of Healthstar Home Health of North St. Paul, whose agency trains and supervises some family aides.

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I would think labor laws would prevail here. Unequal pay for equal work. Almost nobody gets full time care (40 hours a week) and wages average only $11, usually no benefits. I am guessing this one will be appealed up the ladder. It is also true that you almost always get better and more care from a family member. The list of things PCAs and HHA cannot do is staggeringly large. And to mandate it at the state level is cruel and wrong. Republicans are just plain evil.

[glinda]

1. Again a huge mistake to always assume that "family" can pay extra either for

medical or education related expenses.
Is there a Law that states the "you must pay for your child's college or your parent's home care expenses". Plllleeeeze.It is a known fact that families spend out of pocket at minimum $5000 a year out of pocket if they care for another family member. And now they cut away at even the small amount that could help....

[annm4peace]

2. very sad and disappointing

It isn't like they received much money anyhow.

Republicans are stupid and evil.


I had a cousin in Iowa who was quadriplegic and when they made cuts in her aid she started throwing herself into bed and the aid came in the morning to get up. she lived in a condo and drove a modified van.

this started the breakdown of her skin. then she ended up in hospital stays and a nursing home which greatly depressed her.. and she eventually died from the pressure ulcer. She died this year, 5 years after the cuts to Medicaid. She was only 47.


she was a vibrant women who became paralyzed when she was 14.

She just wanted to try to live a normal life and be independent as possible. Her aid gave her more than she was paid and her aid lived at the poverty level.

If I think about it too hard, I start to hate republicans.