Yesterday, the ophthalmologist leaned in and asked Rose to compare two lenses.
Rose has end-stage progressive dementia. She had a cloudy lens in her right eye replaced a month ago. Yesterday was her checkup.
She asked her to compare options two and three.
"Doesn't look any different," she said. "Both fuzzy."
The doctor wrote a new prescription.
That is the cleanest possible description of what this week looked like at every scale.
The administration said the Iran war is "close to over." It also announced the naval blockade would remain fully implemented for as long as necessary. Same news cycle. No explanation of how both are true simultaneously.
Gas is $4.16 per gallon nationally - up from $2.81 in January, the largest monthly price increase in the history of the Consumer Price Index.
Viktor Orbán - sixteen years in power, the most prominent figure of European far-right populism - was voted out of office in Hungary on April 13 in a landslide. JD Vance had traveled to Budapest to boost him. Seventy-seven percent of Hungarian voters turned out. Seventy percent of parliamentary seats went to the opposition. The political prescription of authoritarian populism failed completely.
The Colorado Senate is debating a $1.5 billion budget shortfall driven by Medicaid costs growing at twice the rate the state's constitution allows. The response includes capping the weekly hours of paid caregivers who provide around-the-clock care to Coloradans with progressive conditions. The Medicaid director resigned in March under a 27-senator no-confidence vote. $78 million in overpayments. $300 million per year in fraud. And the response caps caregiver hours.
Both fuzzy.
The Colorado CARE Act fiscal and legal audit is now complete. I want to tell you what it found, because this is the moment those findings matter most.
The bill is revenue-neutral. Zero general fund appropriation. Projected net annual state savings of $23 to $38 million - through Medicaid cost avoidance, retained income tax revenue, and reduced public assistance costs. The mechanism: 113,520 Colorado caregivers leave the workforce each year due to the absence of accommodation. The CARE Act keeps more of them working. Their care recipients stay home instead of entering nursing facilities. Colorado's own data shows the difference: institutional care costs $103,287 per person per year; home-based care costs $69,673. The state saves $33,614 for every placement prevented.
As federal cuts increase Colorado's Medicaid exposure, the savings argument for the CARE Act gets stronger - not weaker.
The legal audit confirms the bill is ready. It uses the same statutory mechanism used to add sexual orientation protection in 2007 and gender identity protection in 2008. It is TABOR-compliant. It creates no new program and requires no voter approval.
The session ends May 13.
Your signature is evidence that Colorado caregivers are real, that their expertise is real, and that the prescription this state needs already exists.
Read this week's full piece - "Better One or Better Two?" - and share it with one person:
Share the Petition here: https://chng.it/DLWncS9wtT
757 signatures. 243 from 1,000.
Rose has a new prescription. She is waiting for someone to fill it.
Kindly and Gratefully,
- Mark Fukae Director of Advocacy, Professionals Who Care Founder, CASI - Caregiver Advocacy Support Initiative mark_fukae@casiadvocacy.org | (303) 817-6995 | casiadvocacy.org