Our Lives on Hold - "I Can't Do That"

"I Can't Do That." In "Our Lives on Hold," we explore the gap between domestic needs and bureaucratic audits. When the simple act of helping a loved one shower becomes subject to a state-sponsored forensic audit, we are not measuring fraud; we are measuring policy failure. Today, for April 25, 2026, we push back against the "management state" that looks for criminality in the most basic acts of care.

What Kennedy's fraud accusations, Colorado's caregiver cap, and a kitchen window have in common - and what the CARE Act would change.

By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care

Thursday morning, Rose stood at the kitchen window watching my wife leash the dogs for a hike up the canyon.

"I can't do that," she said quietly. "You have a good time."

I was at work when this happened - bound by return-to-office policies that don't pause for caregiving moments. My wife absorbed it. She absorbs it every week. And this week, she absorbed it while the HHS Secretary called family caregivers frauds, while Colorado cut homemaker hours in half, and while oil markets swung $35 a barrel on the management decisions of people who find peace talks "too much work."

The management state's fatal flaw is practical, not philosophical.

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.

Kennedy's complaint reveals the absurdity of his own position. He wants to audit work that happens at 3 a.m. in bedrooms and bathrooms. The most expensive caregiving work - the work that prevents ER visits, nursing home placements, and medical crises - happens in knowledge no auditor possesses.

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. It exists in a person. It cannot be transferred to a compliance form.

Colorado's sustainability framework simultaneously requires documentation of undocumentable work and caps the hours of the people doing it - 56 hours per week per caregiver, down from 112; legally responsible person homemaker hours from 10 to 5.

HCPF is holding public meetings about the cap: Thursday April 30, 11 a.m. to noon; Friday May 1, 1 to 2 p.m. Both on Zoom. Register at hcpf.colorado.gov.

(Go Mid-page to register via Zoom)

The Colorado CARE Act is the alternative frame.

Kennedy's frame: caregiving is obligation that can be audited. Colorado's frame: caregiving is infrastructure that can be managed. The CARE Act's frame: caregiving is economic reality that deserves protection.

The bill adds family caregiver status as a protected class under CADA, requires a documented interactive accommodation process before flexible work is denied, and prohibits the pattern of constructive pressure that ends caregiving careers without a single legally actionable act. Zero general fund. $23–38M in projected net annual savings. The fiscal audit is complete. The legal audit is complete. The session ends May 13.

The question before Colorado this summer is whether the person absorbing every policy shock in that kitchen deserves legal standing - or keeps absorbing.

Read the full piece: therevenueneutralcaregiver.substack.com

HCPF public meetings: hcpf.colorado.gov - April 30 and May 1

Sign the petition: https://chng.it/DLWncS9wtT 758 signatures. 678 supporters. 242 from 1,000.

Contact: mark_fukae@casiadvocacy.org | (303) 817-6995