En español -(February 9) — Home care recipients and providers from across San Diego County rallied here this morning to voice their concerns about proposed cuts in the In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) homecare program.

The cuts are part of Gov. Brown’s 2011-12 budget proposals. They would slash state funding for the program by nearly 30 percent.  The rally took place outside the San Diego district office of Assembly Member Toni Atkins, who also has expressed concern about the IHSS cuts.

According to the UDW Homecare Providers Union, which sponsored the rally, the proposed cuts will force thousands of IHSS recipients out of the program and into far-more-costly nursing homes. The cuts will also throw thousands of low-wage homecare providers out of work and eliminate health insurance coverage for thousands more.

Connie Soucy, Systems Change Manager for the San Diego-based Access to Independence, told rally participants that IHSS is a budget solution, not a budget problem. According to Ms. Soucy, it costs taxpayers $11,000 a year to care for someone under IHSS, while nursing home care costs at least $62,000 a year. And here in San Diego County and around the state, the money that homecare providers and their clients spend in the community helps bolster the local economy, she said. Access to Independence helps transition people with disabilities out of nursing homes and back into the community.

Lorena Gonzalez, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego/Imperial Counties Labor Council, urged legislators to consider alternatives before cutting IHSS again. One would be to move at least some of the nearly 100,000 Californians now in nursing homes into less-costly home care, savings the state as much as one billion dollars a year. She noted that more than 25 percent of the Californians now in nursing homes don’t want to be there. Another alternative, she said, would be to take advantage of newly created Federal programs that encourage home and community based care.

UDW, which has 65,000 members statewide and 22,000 in San Diego County, has pledged to work with the governor and legislature to find alternatives.”We believe there are other ways to fund this program and find savings without reducing vital services,” said UDW Executive Director Doug Moore. 

See more UDW photos from the San Diego Rally

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Also see Sacramento & Riverside UDW Rallies

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