Home health care aides are one of the fastest growing segments of the workforce. The Labor Department projects an increase of over 800,000 new jobs by 2032.
Most of home health care is subsidized by either Medicaid or Medicare.
Unions have long wanted to unionize these workers, which of course would only RAISE the cost of home care. California, Oregon, Washington, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Missouri allow such unionization. But even in blue states, the unions are using their political muscle to tighten their grip.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul runs a state home health program that is clearly out of control. Enrollment has gone from 12,000 in 2015 to more than 250,000 today, and the cost is now a staggering $12 billion a year.
Hochul wants to consolidate the management of these providers to a single firm, which would makes it easier for the local Service Employees International Union to unionize the caregivers.
Montana Senator Steve Daines, who is the point man on Medicaid reform, says the Hochul gambit would cost the feds $5 billion.
Hochul is right that there are billions of dollars of fraud in the home health care program - and it’s a target rich environment for DOGE. But Hochul’s plan to monopolize the industry won't cut costs. It will raise them.
