Write your elected representatives.

As California tries to deal with its serious budget crisis, the LAST thing we should be doing is cutting programs that SAVE taxpayers money. One such program is the In Home Supportive Services
(IHSS) homecare program.

Yet Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed drastic cuts in this valuable and cost-effective program. His scheme is FISCALLY IRRESPONSIBLE and will only make the budget situation WORSE.

Here's How IHSS saves taxpayers money:

Home care is at least SIX TIMES less costly than institutional care.
The IHSS program brings hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding to California , which we will LOSE if the program is cut.
IHSS provides JOBS FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Californians. These homecare providers pay millions of dollars in income and sales taxes.
Homecare workers and their clients spend MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in local communities, supporting local businesses that also pay taxes.

It costs approximately $10,000 a year to care for someone at home through IHSS. If you force that person out of IHSS and into a nursing home or other institution, the cost to taxpayers will be $60,000 a year or more.

But now Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to throw nearly 400,000 low-income elderly, blind and disabled Californians--90 percent of those currently in IHSS--out of the program. Many of these people will have no choice but to move out of their homes and into nursing homes to get the care they need.

Furthermore, thousands of those who provide homecare will become unemployed and will lose health insurance, costing taxpayers still more and burdening hospital emergency rooms and other community healthcare facilities.

Yet, even as he proposes these shortsighted cuts to IHSS and turns away millions of dollars in federal money , the governor continues to fully fund far-more-costly nursing home care.

IT IS PENNY-WISE AND POUND-FOOLISH!

Contact your state legislators today. Tell them to protect homecare funds in the state budget.

A handwritten letter or personal phone call is even more effective. Use our easy look-up to get contact information for the legislators that represent you.

For more information, call 1-800-621-5016
UDW. The Home Care Providers Union