SEIU Healthcare Illinois members, home care consumers and disability advocates are taking action to demand that Governor Quinn stop cuts to home care.  As of July 1, the state announced a plan to move forward with cuts to home care that will impact more than 16,000 consumers with disabilities in the Home Services Program.

Within days, thousands of home care workers and people with disabilities made calls to Governor Quinn urging him to make the right decision by stopping the cuts.  Then last week, home care workers and consumers rallied outside the Governor’s office in Chicago.  PAs and consumers chanted and gave personal testimony about how they would be affected by the cuts, while a smaller delegation entered the Thompson Center to deliver a letter to Governor Quinn’s office.

“We won’t stand for these cuts,” says Gilda Brown.  “As PAs, we want to do our job right for our consumers.  With the hours cuts that they are asking for, we can’t do that.  We are here to send a message to the Governor—stop the cuts!”

The Governor’s cuts to home care will limit the number of hours for certain types of support.  For example, consumers will be limited to 30 hours per month for meal preparation and 18 hours per month for support outside the home.

“Our consumers need us so they can stay independent and live by themselves at home.  Besides that, cutting home care means that more people will end up in nursing homes, and that will just cost the state more than providing care at home,” says Lisa Ganious, a Personal Assistant from Chicago.

Home care workers and consumers will continue to take action to call on the Governor stop cuts to home care.