Thursday morning, Rose stood at the kitchen window watching my wife leash the dogs for a hike up the canyon.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Taking the dogs for a walk."
Rose's face shifted - not the confusion of forgetting, but the clarity of remembering everything she can't do anymore.
"I can't do that," she said quietly. "You have a good time."
The same week this happened:
Robert Kennedy Jr. testified to Congress that Medicaid payments to family caregivers are "rife with fraud" - citing picking up groceries, balancing a checkbook, driving someone to a doctor's appointment.
Colorado implemented new rules capping paid family caregivers at 56 hours per week, down from 112. Homemaker services provided by family members - spouses, parents - dropped from 10 hours per week to 5.
President Trump canceled Iran peace talks entirely, telling Axios there was "too much time wasted on traveling" and "too much work." Oil hit $105 a barrel.
And Rose watched life move around her from the kitchen window while my wife managed the emotional weight of four words.
Kennedy wants to audit work that happens at 3 a.m. in bedrooms and bathrooms.
My wife knows that Rose's slight change in gait means a UTI is developing - not because she documented it, but because she's been watching Rose walk for eight years. That knowledge prevents a $2,000 emergency room visit. No compliance form captures it. No fraud investigator can assess it.
The management state can't sustain attention long enough to end a war. But it wants to audit whether helping someone shower was fraudulent. It finds peace negotiations too much work. But wants to document every conversation between someone with dementia and someone who loves them.
That's not oversight. That's managed decline disguised as policy.
Colorado caregivers - there are two public meetings this week you should attend:
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing is holding public meetings on the 56-hour caregiver cap:
Thursday, April 30 | 11 a.m. to noon | Zoom Friday, May 1 | 1 to 2 p.m. | Zoom Register at: hcpf.colorado.gov
The legislature adjourns May 13 - 18 days from now. Your voice matters this week.
After the session ends, I will be talking to Colorado senators and representatives about the Colorado CARE Act - a bill that would make family caregiving a protected class under Colorado law for the first time. Not because caregivers need more money. Because the person absorbing every policy shock from Kennedy's fraud accusations to Colorado's hour cuts to Iran's oil volatility deserves legal standing when their employer decides caregiving is incompatible with employment.
The fiscal audit is complete. The legal audit is complete. The coalition is building.
Your signature is evidence that Colorado should build infrastructure around the people doing this work — not surveillance.
Read this week's full piece - "I Can't Do That" - and share it with one person today:
Continue Sharing the Petition!: https://chng.it/DLWncS9wtT
758 signatures. 242 from 1,000.
Rose watched life move around her and said "you have a good time." Someone has to make sure the person who stays behind has legal standing.
Kindly and Gratefully,
- Mark Fukae Director of Advocacy, Professionals Who Care | Founder, CASI - Caregiver Advocacy Support Initiative mark_fukae@casiadvocacy.org | casiadvocacy.org