Luthmin Boodram, who works for Alliance Home Services based in the Bronx, says she’s “worried sick.” That worry is about her threatened healthcare coverage. She is taking a bus to Albany on March 13 with other 1199SEIU homecare members to let NY State legislators know that taking away healthcare benefits from 15,000 home attendants is completely unacceptable. That is what would happen on May 1 if the legislators fail to provide healthcare funding for the next fiscal year.

“My work is hard,” Boodram says. “If something happens to me like a back strain and I don’t have health benefits, I don’t know what I would do. The money we make is too small to save or pay out-of-pocket (costs). I have to pay for rent, transportation and food. Last year I had no days off or vacation. Now they want us to continue without health insurance.”

Boodram and other attendants have been speaking to their state legislators in district offices leading up to the March 13 lobby day. During those meetings they are appealing for themselves, their families and their clients.

“I came from Trinidad four years ago and have been working with my client for three and a half years,” Boodram says. “My client is bedridden and can’t do anything for herself. I have to do everything for her. I don’t know what she’ll do if I’m forced to stop working with her.”

Boodram says she is fortunate that her husband is working and that her two sons are grown and on their own. She says she knows of other attendants who are the sole providers for their families. “Some of them will have to look for other work and that would be a shame,” she says.

She added that attendants go into the industry because they want to help while earning a living, but that, without health benefits, it is hardly worth the effort. “I hope going to Albany will get us the benefits we deserve,” she emphasizes. “If we don’t get it, I just don’t know what I and my client are going to do.”