Home 
CALIFORNIA, United States?As California leaders, led by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, desperately search for ways to balance a budget that is mired in a $24.3-billion deficit, state care homeowners brace themselves for a proposed cut of $3 billion in health services.
The cuts have the potential to devastate an industry that is deeply rooted in the Filipino community, and to jeopardize not only the future of care providers (owners of facilities), but also more important, the lives of elderly patients and those with disabilities.
?Where will these people go?? asked Lani Escueta, a Filipino-American care provider with three adult residential facilities in Hayward. ?They are always the last to receive whatever the government has to offer. They don?t have anybody?we are their family.?
A number of Filipino-owned care homes in the Bay Area will be affected directly by the cuts as they attempt to reduce their own budgets, especially in regards to employee salaries and benefits.
?We provide employment to those who lost their jobs in the real estate and automobile industry and those who are new immigrants, who are mostly Filipinos?like how I got started as a caregiver?or minorities who can't find better jobs somewhere else,? said Fil-Am Nimfa Gamez, an East Bay care provider, in an e-mail to FilAm Star. ?So cutting their salaries and benefits will mean cutting their source of income that will definitely impact the quality of their living.?
The quality of care provided to those in need stands to take a big hit, as providers would have a difficult time staying competitive without using qualified employees.
?Who would want to work for less but with more difficult responsibilities?? asked Gamez, who provides residential and day-care programs for developmentally disabled adults and seniors. ?We are bound to close our residential care facilities and day programs if we will not earn enough to pay our mortgages and our staff?s salaries.?
Gamez roughly estimates that 80 percent of care providers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles are Filipino.
Even with the ?limited options? that legislators have in reducing state spending, the ?across the board? cuts in health services would only cause programs to become less effective and punish California?s low-income residents and the sick.
?It?s not fair, but we are in this job?we love our clients,? said Escueta. ?There is already a bond there because they moved into our home. It would be really sad on both ends. We don?t know what will happen but we?re just keeping our fingers crossed.?
Many of the care homes receiving assistance from the state?whether through funding, referrals, or quality control?help patients avoid the need to be placed in nursing homes. Eliminating programs, such as the Adult Day Health Care, would only be a temporary stopgap measure, as the projected savings are eventually shouldered by the high cost of placing those same patients (20 percent of the program?s 38,000 recipients) in a nursing home.
Both Escueta and Gamez say a major resource of the Department of Social Services that is on the chopping block is the Regional Center of the East Bay (for Alameda and Contra Costa County), of which there are 21 located throughout the state. The non-profit agency handles the care homes? Purchase of Service (POS) for the state?s Department of Developmental Disability (the money given to the care homes), which was cut by 3 percent in February and is slated for another 7-percent cut this September.
The state is also proposing to slash the amount of regional center service coordinators per case load.
?So we, the care providers, are doing our share?by attending rallies and meetings with local legislators?to make the governor fully realize the situation,? said Escueta, who started her first care home for people with developmental disabilities in 2002.
Gamez, who has a seat on the board of directors of the San Francisco Phil-American Chamber of Commerce and is the vice president for the Federation of Philippine-American Chambers of Commerce, expressed some concern over the lack of Filipino involvement.
?A majority of employees and care providers are Filipinos, yet only a few are actively participating in rallies,? said Gamez, who specializes in the field of the developmentally disabled.
Because of that void, and the current budget cuts, Gamez has organized Filipino care providers and formed the United Association of California Care providers (UACC).
?We are strengthened by our obligations to our client,? said Escueta, the chief planning officer for the UACC.
