Fresno County Supervisors threaten to eliminate home care providers’ healthcare.
Christy’s work is her life.
For Fresno County home care provider Christy Clark, her work is a lifelong endeavor, not just a job. Growing up, Christy helped to take care of her aging grandmother, who needed help running errands and getting around with mobility assistance. For the past several years, Christy has also been a family caregiver to her husband, who has schizophrenia and depression. Dealing with her husband’s mental health issues initially proved quite difficult for Christy, but she was determined to help him overcome his mental illness by providing him with the needed support each day. Christy is also a proud mother of five, with three kids who are grown and out of the house, and two younger kids at home.
“After continuing to help my husband, I then met two people in my church who were in need of caregiving, and I jumped at the opportunity. They were a husband and wife. The husband was blind, and the wife has several serious health issues: Type 1 diabetes, kidney disease, and she’s also a double amputee who needs an oxygen tank. I grew really close to them, and they became like family to me. That’s what a good caregiver is: family to their recipient, and this is what the Fresno County Board needs to understand that it’s more than a job, it’s a passion to help people in need.”
Sadly, Norman passed away from complications related to Covid. Christy continues to take care of the widow, who misses her husband and had to push through depression to feel sane. Christy was there for her, every step of the way.
Christy endures constant economic anxiety.
Even before the Board of Supervisors proposed eliminating her healthcare, Christy has to deal with the real realities of economic hardship.
“Right now, bills still need to be paid. Kids still need school supplies. Then there’s the surprise bills, like the $3,000 I had to pay when my car broke down and I needed to get it fixed because I needed to get to and from work and get my kids to and from school.”
“Right now, I’m being forced to choose between bills,” says Christy. “Credit card bill or PG&E, groceries or another credit card bill. For example, last week I barely afforded gas to fill up the tank and holidays are here, so if I’m already paying all these bills, how am I supposed to get Christmas presents for my kids? This is real life, and these years matter. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had to tighten their budget, even a little, in the last year. It all feels so unaffordable, and then I have to worry about my healthcare getting taken away because the Fresno Board of Supervisors, who we look to for solutions, fails to provide us with livable wages?”
Christy faces an unjust threat to healthcare.
Sadly, even though Christy provides the essential care for her recipients, she is faced with the threat to her own county-provided healthcare coverage. Right now, Fresno County Supervisors are threatening to take away healthcare from all IHSS providers in the county, leaving many to seek Medi-Cal under poverty wages or seek healthcare coverage on their own. Christy worries for the potential mounting medical bills and expenses that she simply cannot afford if medical needs in the future arise. It has taken a real toll on Christy’s mental health, and she loses sleep over the thought of having inadequate coverage in the profession she loves.
“I don’t like that the Board is trying to take our healthcare away,” says Christy. “I try to see both sides, but these officials we help to elect don’t seem to care about our health care needs. I can’t afford to give my income to cover healthcare, when I have all these other bills to take care of. Not all of us are able to get help from the state, since we’re maxing out our hours. We want to be more self-sufficient, which the Fresno County Board should also want. Why won’t they invest in the county’s long-term care? I feel like my community very much values what I do, but the Supervisors don’t value us as caregivers. This profession is so complex, it’s physically demanding and each day you risk possible injury. For example, I have a double amputee needing full assistance with toileting and bathing, and insulin. My recipient has to be transferred to and from the shower and toilet multiple times a day. I demand the Fresno Board of Supervisor’s to Work-A-Day in our profession to see and experience the hardship.”
This is why Christy and other home care providers in Fresno County are asking the Board of Supervisors to refrain from eliminating their healthcare. Board members say that they want everyone to be covered…but their “solution” is to continue to pay poverty wages, eliminate the healthcare provided in the IHSS contract, and push IHSS providers onto gov’t assistance: the Medi-Cal system. Increasing the county’s investment in healthcare for our members is the only equitable solution to long-term care for all.
