Who absorbs the hours? The state's survey closes Sunday

Hello Caregivers and Caregiver Advocates!

Thank you to the 737 of you who have signed.

This week Colorado's health department held public roundtables on five proposals to limit paid personal care and homemaker services. Three of them fall directly on families: one would limit the paid homemaker hours a family caregiver can provide to about 7 a week, one would move about 5,500 children's personal care out of Community First Choice, and one would limit parents and guardians to 7 paid hours of personal care a week. These are proposals, not decisions.

The Department deserves credit for naming its own risks. It said one proposal "could create a bigger reliance on uncompensated care, unpaid care." Its written summaries also say: "HCPF does not have paid family caregiver data."

So the state has savings estimates for limiting family caregivers, and no data on them. If families can't absorb the hours, the costs don't disappear, and nobody is set up to see where they go.

What you can do this weekend:

Tell the state before Sunday, October 11: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDNIIo0MKVZQDkbMHacoCeI3hGmm0gomt2Ne2z4L6-6yNEvA/viewform

If you work and care for someone in Colorado, take the Caring Costs Survey, in English or Spanish: casiadvocacy.org/research

Share this petition with one person who is doing both.

Next week I'll explain how the FLEX Act and the CARE Act fit together, and how the FLEX Act would help Colorado start measuring what working caregivers ask for at work.

Read and listen to the full piece with Podcast: [https://therevenueneutralcaregiver.substack.com/p/the-research-desk-3?r=6a52ih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]

Kindly and Gratefully,

Mark Fukae, CASI, Professionals Who Care

En español: Gracias a las 737 personas que han firmado. Esta semana el departamento de salud de Colorado presentó cinco propuestas para limitar el cuidado pagado en el hogar. Tres afectan directamente a las familias. El departamento dijo que una de ellas podría aumentar la dependencia del cuidado no pagado, y en sus documentos dice que no tiene datos sobre los familiares a quienes se les paga por cuidar. Usted puede opinar antes del domingo 11 de octubre en la encuesta de HCPF, completar la encuesta de CASI en español en casiadvocacy.org/research, y compartir esta petición con una persona.