Proposition B on the November ballot is an example of selling a measure with appealing words while not revealing what may be the real reason for the initiative.
It would create a Missouri Quality Homecare Council and is presented as a way to make it easier for the elderly and disabled to remain in their homes. The council would recruit home-care workers, recommend wages and benefits, and maintain a statewide list of home-care attendants.
We feel the language in the proposition is so ambiguous that it could do the opposite and lead to an increase in costs for home care. It could make it more difficult for the elderly and disabled to remain in their homes.
A “yes” vote will create the council and would cost the state at least $510,000 each year.
Those supporting Proposition B say it would help the disabled and elderly and home health-care workers. Others see it as an attempt to unionize home health-care workers in Missouri.
Both Freeman Health System and St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin are opposing the measure, along with the Missouri Hospital Association and the Missouri Alliance for Home Care, the state’s largest trade association representing home-health groups and private duty companies.
Daniel Landon, senior vice president, governmental relations for the Missouri Hospital Association said, “Proposition B’s favorable first impression is deceptive. Taxpayers don’t need a new state agency with very little oversight as to how it spends public money.”
Mary Schantz, executive director of the Missouri Alliance for Home Care, said the initiative’s language leaves reasonable doubt about what it will do if passed. “The full amendment contains language establishing a collective bargaining unit for certain home-care workers funded through Medicaid, and it establishes a council that has rule-making and policy authority over home-care programs with little oversight by state government.”
The proposal would allow a union if 10 percent of the workers wanted to organize. The general requirement is that 30 percent is required to vote on unionization. The proposal appears to give the council the right to mandate union dues on all personal-care attendants, even if they choose not to join the union, according to the Missouri Alliance for Home Care.
The Service Employees International Union helped fund the petition initiative to get it on the ballot.
Proposition B allows too much latitude and could increase the costs of home-health care in Missouri. It could make it more difficult for the elderly and disabled to remain in their own homes.
We recommend a “no” vote.
