What Rose Costs
- Mark Fukae
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
A registered lobbyist reads four Colorado budget documents. He finds the number on page four. This is Dispatch One of The Long Game.
By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care
Page four of Colorado's Budget Reductions Fact Sheet.
FY 2026-27: $1.1 million in General Fund savings from capping paid caregiver hours at 56 per week.
In a $20.6 billion program.
HCPF's own data: $33,614 - the annual cost differential between nursing home care and home-based care.
$1.1 million divided by $33,614 is 32.7.
Thirty-three people.
If thirty-three employed family caregivers exit the workforce - because the hours were cut, because there was no law requiring a conversation before the arrangement collapsed - the projected savings disappear. And institutionalization costs compound annually for however many years each person lives.
The state is betting $1.1 million that this won't happen. As far as I can find, no one has modeled whether that bet is sound.
The Colorado Commission on Medicaid meets June 4 - Room 220, Old Supreme Court Chamber, Colorado State Capitol.
I will be there as a registered volunteer lobbyist. A written brief is already officially on record with Commission staff. One argument: every cost-containment measure in HCPF's budget documents increases reliance on unpaid employed family caregivers. None of those measures protects those caregivers' employment. The Colorado CARE Act does. At zero cost to the general fund.
The CARE Act requires the conversation before the arrangement collapses. An employer who genuinely cannot accommodate a caregiver doesn't have to. But they have to try - document why, say in writing what they considered. Most accommodations aren't impossible. Most are a modified schedule. One remote day a week.
That is the whole bill. In two sentences.
Read and Listen to the full dispatch: therevenueneutralcaregiver.substack.com
Sign or share: https://c.org/WjGpN6TYnB - 686 supporters, 766 signatures, 234 from 1,000
Brief and audit documents: mark_fukae@casiadvocacy.org | (303) 817-6995
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