Nursing Homes Try to Get Exemptions from Covering Their Workers
The recent federal health care legislation requires that all employers with more than 50 employees provide affordable health care insurance for their workers. Unfortunately, as it stands now, many nursing home staff simply cannot afford the health care coverage that their employers provide, and go without coverage entirely.
As this article in the New York Times points out, it is especially important for health care workers, like nursing home employees, to be healthy, to receive regular preventative care, and to be able to obtain medical care whenever needed. All too easily, a sick worker can spread her illness to a very vulnerable population.
However, according to the Times article, at Lakeview Christian Home in Carlsbad, New Mexico, less than half of the employees have health coverage, because many cannot afford the $25/month they would have to pay. In fact, over a quarter of front-line nursing home employees are not insured, according to the article.
As the Times reports, though, rather than try to ensure that the nation's nursing home workers have access to affordable health insurance, the nursing home lobby is instead working to create loopholes for nursing homes.
