Los Angeles County Looks at Plan to Offer Coverage to Home Health Workers

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has made a "firm commitment" to enroll the county's uninsured home health care workers in a public health program, the Pasadena Star-News reports. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services Director Mark Finucane presented supervisors two options for covering the roughly 35,000 "in-home supportive service workers" who lack health coverage and are not eligible for government-subsidized care. Under the plan, home care workers would be enrolled in either the L.A. Care Health Plan, which administers Healthy Families, or the county-run HMO Community Health Plan. The supervisors instructed Finucane to calculate the cost of each option and present his findings to the board at its March 13 meeting. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said that he was "optimistic that come March we'll have all the studies we need to make this happen." Finucane estimated that the proposals would actually save the county money because it spends about $6 million annually to treat uninsured home health care workers who seek care in emergency rooms. In addition, the state and federal governments would cover 80% of the plan's cost. The Star-News reports that the proposal marks a "major victory" for Los Angeles' home health care workers, who recently received a pay raise. Tyrone Freeman, general manager of the home care workers' union, said, "I don't know if there will be any piece of legislation this year that will make as much of a difference to a whole group of people as this" (Keating, Pasadena Star-News, 1/31).