Why Do Some Health Care Workers Live in Poverty? | NYT Opinion

It’s 3 a.m. and Kim Rockwood, a health care worker, is driving to her patients’ homes — even during the coronavirus pandemic — to help them take medication or go to the bathroom. She’s effectively on call 24/7. Yet she can barely make ends meet. As she explains in the above video, she’s always on the clock, and even though she loves her job, she can’t afford her own health insurance.

Why is someone so vital to our health care system scraping by on poverty wages?

Ms. Rockwood, a certified nursing assistant in Worcester County, Mass., is not alone. The average home care worker in America makes just $16,200 a year. Many of them would make more on unemployment. Someday, most of us will need supportive care. Will there be any workers left when that time comes?

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