Colorado Policy Brief: When Your Kitchen Table Becomes a Policy Briefing Room

By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care

Colorado families are managing care, work, and policy survival - all from the same surface.

April 2024. My wife and I sat at our kitchen table in Brighton, staring at a calendar already packed with medical appointments, therapy schedules, and work deadlines. We were trying to figure out how to add one more person to our household care infrastructure.

My wife's mother needed to move in with us. Type 1 diabetes requiring insulin pump management. Severe cardiac and pulmonary limitations-40% heart and lung capacity. Chronic pain requiring weekly physical therapy. And here's what made the situation both beautiful and impossible: she would help care for my mother, who has dementia, while managing her own complex medical needs.

She became both caregiver and care recipient in the same household.

Three adults requiring complex medical coordination. One household. Two working caregivers. No institutional support.

This is what 580,000 Colorado households look like right now. And it's costing us everything.

But my caregiving journey didn't start in April 2024. It started in 2003 with my father's stroke. I owned a small business then-a private studio co-op. I had flexibility, which sounds like a luxury until you realize that flexibility was also what killed my business. By 2005, I had to close it entirely because caregiving made growth impossible.

The flexibility that allowed me to be a caregiver also cost me my livelihood.

Twenty-three years later, I'm still calculating: How much workplace flexibility can I request before it threatens my employment entirely?

And I'm not alone. According to AARP's 2025 study, 67% of family caregivers struggle to balance work and caregiving. In Colorado, that's 580,000 adults providing $10.1 billion in annual unpaid labor-while the state faces an $850 million budget deficit.

Here's what Colorado lawmakers need to understand: family caregivers who leave the workforce lose an average of $303,000 in lifetime earnings. When these workers exit, Colorado loses tax revenue, employers lose experienced employees, and families face economic instability.

During a budget crisis, this pattern accelerates. When state services are reduced, families absorb more caregiving responsibility. More workers exit the labor force. Tax revenues decline further-deepening the budget crisis.

It's a death spiral. And we're in it right now.

But there's a solution that costs nothing: workplace accommodations for long-term family caregivers-just like Colorado already provides for pregnant workers through the POWR Act and workers with disabilities through CADA.

Flexible schedules. Remote work options when needed. Modified duties during care crises. These are negotiated accommodations, not mandates. Subject to employer feasibility.

The economic logic is simple: keeping experienced workers employed costs far less than turnover and retraining.

The Colorado legislative session starts January 14th. The last day for bill requests is January 20th. We have 11 days to get caregiver workplace protections into the pipeline.

I'm reaching out to potential sponsors this week-Senator Judy Amabile, Senator Dafna Michaelson Jenet, Senator Cathy Kipp, and Senator Marc Catlin. Colorado has a narrow window to act.

Colorado has 580,000 family caregivers who shouldn't have to be lucky. They should have policy.

Read and listen to my full analysis on Substack: [https://open.substack.com/pub/therevenueneutralcaregiver/p/colorado-policy-brief-colorados-budget?r=6a52ih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]

And if you're a caregiver navigating workplace challenges, share your story. Sign the petition for the CARE Act: https://chng.it/DLWncS9wtT

We build this movement one household at a time.