Editor's Column
by
Tim Benjamin
The economy sure has become
the topic of conversations at all levels—from political circles
to water cooler talk. Brigette Menger-Anderson, Personal Assistant
Services Manager at Metropolitan Center for Independent Living, recently
discussed gas prices and their effects on seniors and people with
disabilities in a conversation on Minnesota Public Radio, http://tinyurl.com/5m3ogs.
That conversation was broadcast June 5 on National Public Radio.
As we go to press, the New York Times has picked up the story, http://tinyurl.com/5aptk9.
Both versions cover how commuting costs are hurting the healthcare
industry, especially independent living. Many of the PCA agencies
reimburse for gas mileage from one client’s home to the next,
but don’t pay from the PCA’s home to the first client
or from the last client to home. In many occupations, this is the
standard. But in the home health care industry the salaries are so
low that it’s making it difficult for agencies to find PCAs
willing to travel or fulfill the needs of clients needing to have
two or three visits per day. If you don’t have an eight-hour
shift it’s hardly worth the PCA time with rising gas prices.
Low salaries make it more difficult for PCAs to afford an economical
car or to keep it maintained for best fuel efficiency.
PCAs are not the only
ones affected by high gas prices. According to the New York Times
article, Meals on Wheels has had to cut deliveries throughout the
country. This is especially felt in remote rural areas. Elaine
Eubank, president of CareLink, a nonprofit agency that serves elderly
people in Arkansas, said “We’ve had one increase
from Medicaid in 11 years, but home care and Meals on Wheels keep
people at home for a fraction of the cost of a nursing home. The
state pays for care once they’re in a nursing home. So our
cuts may cost more than they save.” Gee whiz, have we heard
this story before: cutting the funding of home care so that people
end up living in nursing homes at a higher cost to the state? Most
importantly, underfunding for home care results in people living
where they don’t want to live.
Is drilling new oil
wells the answer? Is light rail the answer? Light rail seems to
me to be the more logical of the two. Neither of these answers
is a quick fix by any means, but using more fossil fuels versus
investing in a public transit seems like a no-brainer. So could
we invest more money in two ways, first by increasing support for
all levels of home care and second, by creating a larger, standardized,
public transportation that everyone can use. By everyone I mean your
grandmother, your neighbor who’s got vision loss, and your
neighbor who is doing home care? The insurance industry sure doesn’t
want the population to have no need for vehicle insurance. The oil
industry definitely doesn’t want us to even become one or two
percent less dependent on their products. Who else would lose profits
if the country became dependent on public transit?
We have a new intern
at Access Press, Silas Matthies, and he’s
written his first published article. Silas brings us an article on
the tragedy last month about the young
man with autism who became
lost in the Wisconsin wilderness. There’ve been many questions
and conversations about implanting GPS in people who might find themselves
lost or who are unable to communicate or navigate their way back
to safety. We very much hope to bring you a more in-depth article
on related topics in next month’s Access Press.
Hope everyone’s
having a nice summer. And thanks to the great staff and volunteers
who helped produce this July issue. ![end of story bullet]()
