I have been a home health care aide for four years. The people’s referendum on the ballot Nov. 6 is for “universal home health care.” As a home health care aide, I find the need to voice why I disagree with Question 1.

Question 1 proposes to allow access to home health care to more people by providing more funding, but funding is not the issue in this case.

Being approved for home health care is fairly easy through the current assessment systems. After potential clients are evaluated for their needs, they will be given their choices of companies to service them. Many of the potential clients, however, are put on a wait list simply due to the lack of workers in this field. If this bill passes, that wait list will be made even longer for lower income people.

Current laws also hold home health care care workers to strict HIPPA laws, meaning any personal information about a client must not be shared. Question 1, however, will cause DHHS to break HIPPA laws by sharing all current and potential clients’ contact information with other sources. Clients will not be given the right to stop the sharing of their information.

Voters should consider all the bill implies. Question 1 will cause workers already working overtime to cover existing clients to be stretched even more, plus cause many issues for existing and potential clients.

Savanna Hagerthy, Lisbon Falls

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