Hi All Supporters of the CARE Act :
Thank you!! Please continue sharing the petition.
The petition has gained ground - 686 supporters, 766 signatures, 234 from 1,000.
Every name on this petition is evidence I will carry into Room 220 of the Colorado State Capitol on June 4.
This week I launched a new series. It's called The Long Game - real-time documentation of the Colorado CARE Act campaign, from the inside, as it unfolds.
Dispatch One is called "What Rose Costs."
I spent three hours last week reading four Colorado Medicaid budget documents. I was looking for the number that proves the Colorado CARE Act is worth building. I found it on page four of the Budget Reductions Fact Sheet.
FY 2026-27: $1.1 million in projected General Fund savings from capping paid caregiver hours at 56 per week.
In a $20.6 billion program.
HCPF's own published data shows a $33,614 annual cost differential between skilled nursing facility care and home-based care - what it costs the state when someone enters a nursing home instead of staying home.
$1.1 million divided by $33,614 is 32.7.
Thirty-three people.
If thirty-three employed family caregivers exit the workforce - because the paid hours were cut, because there was no law requiring a conversation before the caregiving arrangement collapsed - the projected $1.1 million in savings disappears completely. And institutionalization costs compound annually for however many years each person lives. The bet the state is making with those savings is that this won't happen.
As far as I can find, no one in Colorado's Medicaid budget process has modeled whether that bet is sound.
A written brief making this argument is now officially on record with the Colorado Commission on Medicaid staff.
The Commission holds its first meeting on June 4 - Room 220, Old Supreme Court Chamber, Colorado State Capitol. I will be there as a registered Colorado volunteer lobbyist and stakeholder observer.
The Colorado CARE Act is the tool that makes the bet sound. It requires a documented conversation before a caregiver's employment arrangement changes - not a guaranteed outcome, but a guaranteed process. An employer who genuinely cannot accommodate a caregiver doesn't have to. But they have to try. Document why they couldn't. Most accommodations aren't impossible. Most are a modified schedule. A different start time. One remote day a week.
Zero general fund. $23-38 million in projected net annual savings. The math is HCPF's own.
Your signature is evidence I bring into Room 220 on June 4.
Please share this petition today with one person who is carrying something the law doesn't yet see.
Read Dispatch One - "What Rose Costs": [https://open.substack.com/pub/therevenueneutralcaregiver/p/the-long-game-dispatch-1?r=6a52ih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]
Sign or continue sharing here: https://c.org/WjGpN6TYnB
766 signatures. 234 from 1,000. We are getting closer!
My mother's name is Rose. She's been with us since 2016. She knows my face, still. I'm trying to make sure the law knows it too.
That's what this is for.
Kindly and Gratefully,
- Mark Fukae Director of Advocacy, Professionals Who Care Founder, CASI - Caregiver Advocacy Support Initiative Colorado Registered Volunteer Lobbyist mark_fukae@casiadvocacy.org | casiadvocacy.org