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News

January 1, 2020

ALPHA continues fight for SSI increase

Thank you for your continuing advocacy efforts to increase the personal care home supplement.  We’re well underway with our strategy for the FY2020/2021 state budget. Here is an update on our efforts.

First, we’re glad to report that the response to our request to send letters to Governor Tom Wolf asking that the PCH supplement increase be added to his FY 2020-2021 state budget was strong. Several statewide advocates took up this task and it helped us raise the profile of the PCH issue within the Wolf Administration. Thank you for all your support and assistance with this effort! The Wolf Administration clearly recognizes the important role that personal care homes play in our communities – but they continue to reinforce the need to develop more champions for this cause across Pennsylvania.

Although we continue our discussions with Wolf Administration officials, the feedback thus far is that this requested increase will not be included in the budget announced in February. BUT – we’ve also been told that they are interested in continuing the dialogue and could potentially agree to any increase we’re able to secure in the final state budget in June. Again, we are asking for a dramatic change in state policy and a significant amount of taxpayer money. Countless groups seek funding increases every year and we need to distinguish ourselves from the pack.  We’re definitely making progress.

Whether the PCH Supplement increase is in the Governor’s Budget or not, we’ll be aggressively targeting our state legislators this Winter/Spring as they develop the final state budget in June. We’re preparing our advocacy action plan and will be sharing more details about this with you in the weeks ahead. In short: we’ll be asking our ALPHA Ambassadors to meet with their local lawmakers across the state and we’ll provide them with a trove of advocacy materials to share. Our goal is to make this process as easy as possible for both our Ambassadors, and to also provide our lawmakers the tools/messaging they need to advocate on our behalf. And with the assistance of outside consultants, the ALPHA Advocacy Team will aggressively target Senate/House leadership and the Wolf Administration throughout the budget process and right up until the final agreement is announced.

Important, meaningful work is never easy. But this is a fight worth fighting and we’re fully engaged. We greatly appreciate your continued support, sacrifice and energy to this cause.

In partnership,

Scott, Dianna, and Bob

Diana Benaknin

dbenaknin@wellspan.org

717-779-7762

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