Hello All~
Please help with this very important proposed NJ budget issue regarding personal care assistance services. The proposed cuts will have serious affects on so many people with disabilities & caregivers. We need to elicit a strong response to stop any cuts in the provision of these services:
27,000 New Jerseyans with disabilities affected! Governor Christie‘s budget cuts $2.00 an hour in rates for personal care assistance services which allows people with disabilities on Medicaid to remain in their own homes, instead of being sent to nursing homes or other institutions.
Those services include help in getting in and out of bed, bathing, toileting, dressing eating and shopping. With such help, many people with disabilities are able to work and participate in the social and public life of their communities.
The cuts will effectively cut the pay of personal care assistants from $9.00 to $7.00. It is difficult to recruit competent personal care assistants at the current rate. Reducing it to $7.00 will make that more difficult and deprive those who do provide those services of a living wage.
Please tell you state Senators and Assemblypersons to stop these cuts (see sample letter). Instructions for finding your NJ legislators is at the bottom of this message.
All the best~Anne McMahon
Message Subject: Please stop the cuts to Personal Care Asisstance Services
Dear
[Decision Maker’s name here- send one to each State Assemblyperson and State Senator],
Governor Christie proposes to cut the hourly wages of personal care assistants from $9.00 to $7.00 an hour. Personal care assistants provide 27,000 people with severe disabilities on Medicaid with the supports they need to remain in their own homes, rather than be sent to nursing homes and other institutions. They assist with toileting, bathing, dressing, eating, shopping and other essential care and allow many people with disabilities to participate in their communities.
These cuts will make it even more difficult to recruit competent personal assistants; it will further impoverish those willing to provide these onerous but essential services. Finally, it is penny-wise and pound-foolish since these in-home services cost far less than their alternative, nursing homes and other forms of institutional care.
Please restore these proposed cuts in the budget of the Office of Home and Community Services, Division of Disability Services, Department of Human Services.
Sincerely,
(your name and address)
To locate your NJ legislators go to
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/ and in the left column under “Members” select “find your legislator”.
