Texas lawmakers debating how much money to spend on resolving the state’s health care crisis

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The state of Texas pays $17.50 an hour for those who care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. But that’s only if they work for the state. If they work for nonprofits that meet the needs the state can’t, Texas pays just $10.60 an hour, a rate now up for debate in the state capitol.

As legislators in Austin decide how best to spend more than $337 billion part of their conversations revolves around people like Viginia Atubegu. She and her coworkers care for the intellectually and developmentally disabled at Vita-Living, a nonprofit that runs 20 group homes and day facilities.

“In everything we do, we try to make them fit in and enjoy being with them every day,” Atubegu said of her clients, whose average age is 50.

Joseph Cooper is the CEO and is part of a coalition lobbying the state to up its reimbursement, which, right now, doesn’t pay a living wage and is driving people away from the industry.

“If it wasn’t for them (the caregivers) 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year, where would these people be? They would be in state institutions. They would be on the streets. They’d be in prison,” Cooper told ABC13. “That’s what we all worry, and tremble, and pray about. There are some providers that are closing their group homes.”

The latest numbers reveal there is a 33.5% vacancy rate among caregivers, and that they work an average of 59 hours per week.

“Increasing the wages would go a long way in stabilizing the workforce,” Cooper said.

In the state house, there is a bill that would increase that reimbursement roughly $5 an hour at a rate the state pays its own employees. The Senate’s bill is at $2 an hour. State Representative Armando Walle is part of the budget conference committee.

“It is a lot of money,” Walle said. “But we’re focused on those people, those staff members that really need a raise. We need to take care of those workers again. These are hardworking people. It’s a hard job, and they’re taking care of the most vulnerable of Texans.”

That’s something with which Virginia Atubegu agrees.

“I’d like to see the state do more because the ladies, the men, and the ladies of the DSP staff, they give their all,” she said. “They give their all. They need to be appreciated more for what they do.”

It seems there will be some raising the question: how much, and will it be enough to ease a crisis?

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