BOSTON (SHNS) - After Gov. Maura Healey tried unsuccessfully to make budget cuts last year that would have reduced services to the elderly and people with disabilities, advocates are reaching out to her office ahead of this year's budget season to plead for full funding in fiscal 2026. Under Healey's fiscal 2025 budget, 6,000 people would have lost access to personal care assistants (PCAs), who help seniors and people with disabilities with services they need to live at home, including bathing, dressing, meal preparation, feeding, help using the bathroom, housekeeping, and grocery shopping. The administration aimed to cut $57 million in state spending for the program -- though a federal match means over $100 million worth of services would have been cut in totality -- to chip away at a $950 million MassHealth budget shortfall. The House and Senate did not agree to the funding cut, however, after a wave of rallies at the State House by people with disabilities, seniors, PCAs, health care unions and independent living center staff. "We haven't gone away. The program's as valuable as it always was, and we just want to say the coalition is still active, the program is vital -- we hope you don't cut it this year," Boston Center for Independent Living Executive Director Bill Henning, who participated in the rallies last year, told the News Service on Monday. On Tuesday, advocates plan to drop a letter at Healey's office asking her and Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh to "provide full support" for the PCA program in the fiscal 2026 budget due on Jan. 22. It's signed by close to 30 organizations, including by the state's independent living centers, the Disability Law Center, Arc Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, Health Care for All and more. "As you know, PCA services enable thousands of people with disabilities, including many older adults, to live independently in the community, with significant enhancement to their independence and wellbeing. Absent PCA services some people would need to enter a costly nursing facility, others might lose their job, and the health of many people would decline, putting more pressures on already overburdened health care systems and other state-funded services," the letter says. Lawmakers are warning about tough choices in the upcoming budget cycle, and the PCA program is not cheap. 1199 SEIU, the union that represents personal care attendants, negotiated a three-year contract with the state in 2023 that will bring PCA pay from the flat $18 per hour rate to a wage scale that goes up to $25 per hour based on experience by 2027. The cost to taxpayers of these home care services has grown from $1.2 billion in fiscal 2020 to $1.6 billion in fiscal 2023, to the projection that the program is on track to reach $2 billion by fiscal 2027, according to state health officials, who say that at $2 billion the program would have the highest per capita cost among states. Advocates say it's vital that the state invest in independent living programs, as Massachusetts's aging population grows and requires more help. In 2020, 14 percent of Massachusetts residents were 65 or older. The UMass Donahue Institute population projections predict that by 2050, that number will climb to 27 percent above the retirement age of 65. "These are people who could go to expensive nursing homes, or live at home in their communities with help," Henning said. "... We know it's a tough budget year. Word on the street is there might be cuts ... It's their job to look at the numbers. It's our job to remind them of the people, the stories behind the numbers."