The Issue

63 million Americans provide unpaid care for a loved one right now.

Most have no legal right to ask their employer for flexibility. No required conversation before a remote arrangement is revoked. No recognition under civil rights law. The care they provide is worth an estimated $600 billion a year in the United States (AARP, 2023), and it appears in no budget. It is simply assumed.

When that care breaks down, the cost doesn't disappear. It moves to Medicaid, to nursing facilities, and to emergency rooms.

Colorado is working to change that.

The Colorado Care Firewall is a two-phase legislative strategy in development for the 2027 and 2029–2030 sessions. It has not passed. That is why your signature matters now, before the votes.

A handful of states and more than 200 cities protect caregivers from workplace discrimination. None gives caregivers an enforceable right to request flexibility, with a required response and protection from retaliation. Colorado can be first, and design it so other states and Congress can follow. The Family and Medical Leave Act, the ADA, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act all began as state experiments.

Phase 1 - The FLEX Act (2027): A Colorado labor standard giving employed caregivers the right to request modest schedule or location flexibility. Employers must respond in writing within 21 days and can say no for real operational reasons. No new leave. No new state appropriation. It requires the conversation before the job is lost.

Phase 2 - The CARE Act (2029–2030): Family caregiver status as a protected class under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

What We Know, and What We Don't

• In Colorado, nursing facility care costs about $40,700 more per person each year than care at home (HCPF, 2023).
• Caregiving cost Colorado employers an estimated $564 million in 2015 (Colorado Health Institute). Turnover is the largest share of that cost, and the part flexibility most clearly reduces.
• California's paid family leave reduced nursing home use among older adults by about 11% (Arora & Wolf, 2018).
• What no one has measured: whether workplace flexibility keeps family care arrangements together. Colorado's own data doesn't track it. The FLEX Act would require the state to report on how the law is working, so Colorado can find out.

The Budget Pressure Is Real

The Governor's budget office told Colorado's Medicaid Commission this month that Medicaid overspent by $158 million last year, with $443 million projected this year and about $918 million the year after. The state is cutting paid caregiving hours to save money. If those cuts push families past what they can sustain, some of the savings may come back as nursing home costs. No one is measuring whether that's happening.

What These Bills Do NOT Require

• No guaranteed paid leave
• No exemption from performance standards
• No automatic approval of requests
• No new taxes, fees, or state appropriations

Who I Am

I am a working caregiver, the founder of CASI (Caregiver Advocacy Support Initiative), a registered Colorado volunteer lobbyist, and a designated stakeholder for Colorado's Medicaid Commission.

My mother has lived with my family since 2016 and was diagnosed with dementia in 2019. In 2024, after two years of documented remote work, my arrangement was revoked by a blanket return-to-office mandate. HR's response: "We all have family obligations, but we need to suck it up."
"Suck it up" is not what one manager said to one employee. It is what our systems say to 63 million people every day. It is a policy choice, and we can change it.

Sign If You Believe

• Caregivers shouldn't lose their jobs for showing up for their families
• Workers deserve the right to ask for flexibility without punishment
• The safety net can't hold if we keep ignoring the people holding it up
• Caregiving is infrastructure that every system in this country depends on

You don't need to live in Colorado or be a caregiver to sign.

The Medicaid Commission reports to the legislature on December 11. The evidence about caregivers is being built right now:

→ Take the Caring Costs Survey: casiadvocacy.org/research Module 1 is 90 seconds. Anonymous. No sign-in required. Available in English and Spanish. → Read the research: therevenueneutralcaregiver.substack.com → Learn more: casiadvocacy.org → Sign the petition: change.org/p/the-care-act-a-smart-investment-for-working-caregivers-in-america-colorado

Sign. Share. Stand with 63 million caregivers.