SACRAMENTO, CA –  After the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research issued a report finding that cuts to home care for seniors and people with disabilities will hurt the neediest recipients, three Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California locals representing home care workers -  SEIU ULTCW-United Long Term Care Workers' Union,  SEIU-UHW United Healthcare Workers West, and SEIU Local 521  - released the following joint statement:
 
“Today’s UCLA report confirms that the Governor’s proposed budget cuts to IHSS will not only move California in the wrong direction financially, but cause a deterioration in the health and safety of seniors and people with disabilities.  
 
“The report found that under the Governor’s proposals, drastic and unprecedented numbers of people who need care will lose all their services -  such as 90% adults aged 80 and over, 91% of those who are unable to shop for food without assistance, and 86.5% of those with cognitive impairments .
 
“Researchers also pointed out the real-world flaws in both the Governor’s proposal and a recent Legislative Analyst Office report, noting that California nursing homes only have the capacity to absorb 5% of the IHSS population.
 
“For decades, California has been on the right track, shifting the long-term care balance away from institutions and toward cost-effective home and community based services like IHSS. In 1970, 5.4% of seniors were in nursing homes. As a result of home care and other home and community-based services, that percentage has dropped to 2.7% today.

“Now the Governor wants to move California thirty years back, putting an end to cost-effective home and community-based services and instead relying solely on financially unsustainable institutional care.”



The UCLA report, “Budget Proposals Turn Back Clock 30 Years in Long-Term Care Services for California Seniors” is available here: http://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/pubs/Publication.aspx?pubID=399     
 
SEIU California is a coalition of over 700,000 janitors, social workers, security officers, home care workers, school and university employees, healthcare workers, and city, county and state employees represented by SEIU local unions throughout California. We come together to build a better California by fighting to pass policies and elect candidates that benefit working families and advance the issues we care about: affordable healthcare, good wages, retirement security for all, a healthy environment, good schools and universities, and stronger communities. We believe that by working together we can build a California where working families can thrive again.