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“Our Lives On Hold” - a visual callout to the emotional and policy toll of caregiver neglect in American systems. On heartbreak, governance flooding, and why caregivers cannot wait for federal stability By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care This week, I'm writing from a place I haven't written from before - not just as an advocate or policy analyst, but as someone whose household is about to be turned upside down, and whose heart is breaking every sing

Steadying the anchor:  This week’s title card reflects the precarious balance between shifting federal health policies and the personal search for economic stability. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care My mother has lived with my wife and me for more than nine years. This is her home. Her room. Her routines. Her familiar chair. Her birthday cards still sitting on the kitchen table. But this week, she began asking again: "Can you take me home?" She m

Our Lives On Hold: The moment memory meets policy - and the workplace says “suck it up." By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care My mother and I share a birthday. This year, for her 94th, we took her to a small German restaurant - a place that felt like home. She was born in Germany, and even now, as her memory fades, the taste of sauerbraten and German folk music still spark something familiar. She smiled through the whole meal. But what she held onto m

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 requ

Once again, research shows that organizations have an outsized impact on the outcomes of caregivers. Inclusive policies matter.

We are not talking enough about what Medicaid cuts will mean for the people sitting next to us at work. Behind policy debates and budget lines are millions of employed caregivers who rely on Medicaid-funded home- and community-based services to make work possible. When those supports are reduced or eliminated, caregivers do not just lose services. They absorb new direct and indirect costs, lose stability, and face impossible choices between employment and care. Without home-

Caregivers are holding up the care economy - and 2026 will test every system they support. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care Across Colorado and the nation, caregivers are holding up the long‑term care system with unpaid labor, personal sacrifice, and an economic burden that grows heavier every year. As we enter 2026, the warning signs are no longer subtle - they are structural, systemic, and accelerating. Professionals Who Care is proud to share a

Caregivers are the first to feel the collapse of affordability. This is what instability looks like. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care In his latest Substack essay, Our Lives On Hold: When Stability Breaks , caregiver advocate Mark Fukae delivers a searing account of what happens when caregiving collides with a broken insurance system. From his mother’s recent CT scan to his wife’s mother’s slow recovery from bronchitis, Mark paints a vivid picture

Families at the Breaking Point: Navigating care, coverage, and crisis at year’s end. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care Healthcare professionals know the truth: affordability is the beating heart of care. Without stable coverage, families delay treatment, caregivers burn out, and providers face rising reconciliation errors. This week, Congress failed to extend ACA subsidies, leaving millions at risk of premium spikes in January. House proposals focu

Caregivers on the brink: balancing home care and professional demands in a system without support. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care Caregivers across Colorado and the nation are facing a manufactured crisis. With enhanced ACA subsidies set to expire on December 31, 2025, millions of families will see premiums double overnight. For caregivers already balancing unpredictable income and full‑time responsibilities, this is not a policy debate - it is

Care Futures reframes caregiving as professional training - where lived experience meets advocacy and recognition. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care Every day, family caregivers perform tasks that mirror those taught in Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) programs: bathing, dressing, feeding, monitoring cognition, and advocating in medical settings. Yet despite this hands-on expertise, most are excluded from formal recognition, pay, and support. At P

Care Futures: Thankful Hands, Shared Care - honoring caregivers, family, and the infrastructure of compassion this Thanksgiving. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care When my mother fell last week, it was her caregivers - not her memory - who carried the truth into the ER. Too often, caregivers are ignored, even when they are the only reliable voice. This Thanksgiving, we are thankful that both my wife’s mother and my mother live with us, cared for in

By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care Visualizing the fragile balance between caregiving and policy in a future shaped by rising costs and shrinking safety nets. Professionals across industries are facing a hidden crisis: caregiving responsibilities colliding with rising healthcare costs and shrinking safety nets. For those balancing careers with elder care, the stakes are higher than ever. At Professionals Who Care , we believe caregiving is not a dis

Who cares for the caregivers? A vision of caregiving as the foundation of a sustainable future. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care At Professionals Who Care , we recognize that caregiving is not a side issue - it is the infrastructure that sustains families, workplaces, and communities. Yet caregivers themselves often remain invisible in policy and practice. In our latest feature, Care Futures: Who Cares for the Caregivers , Mark Fukae - volunteer l

Shutdown ends, but ACA subsidy uncertainty remains - a visual call to action from Professionals Who Care. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care The government may have reopened, but healthcare stability remains fragile. As Speaker Mike Johnson warned during the shutdown, “The problem is when you’re subsidizing insurance companies, they just jack the rates up even higher… So the solution is to get at the root causes.”  That skepticism underscores why th

“Shutdown Day 40: The Shutdown’s Hidden Tax” - a visual callout from Professionals Who Care highlighting the economic and health consequences of subsidy lapses during government shutdowns. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care Day 40 is not an abstract statistic.  It is a string of household decisions: which bill to pay, which dose to skip, who misses work to drive an elder to an appointment. Amidst this crisis, a political push surfaced to eliminate s

“Shutdown Day 39 - Families First, Not Billionaire Greed. Caregivers and families bear the cost while billionaires remain untouched.” By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care The longest government shutdown in U.S. history has now stretched into Day 39 . For policymakers, it may be another round of partisan brinkmanship. For caregivers, families, and frontline workers, it is a lived crisis - one that strips away healthcare, food security, housing, and sta

Shutdown Day 32: Care Cannot Wait.  While federal workers are promised back pay, contractors and caregivers lose income they’ll never recover. Professionals Who Care stands with those on the frontlines of the shutdown’s impact. By Mark Fukae - Director of Advocacy - Professionals Who Care Shutdowns are not abstractions. They are direct assaults on the care economy - destabilizing families, professionals, and the systems we rely on. On Day 32 of the federal shutdown, bipartisa

Day 26: When States Lead, Washington Sleeps. 😴 This quote perfectly captures the political reality for businesses and the care workforce: "While Washington naps on privilege, states wake up to purpose-proving that compassion, not intentional neglect , feeds families." On Day 26 of the Federal Government shutdown, the ruling majority's inaction is forcing states to become the frontline defense for essential services. This isn't just a political choice; it's a direct externali

The message from the protests is clear: Demand the AUTO-CR and the Universal Caregiver Bill of Rights. Caregivers reject the 'No Kings, No Pawns' dysfunction that makes care an unbudgeted economic risk. The federal shutdown is not an abstraction-it’s a lived crisis  and a direct threat to the American workforce. For the 29+ million employed caregivers  in America, every day of political gridlock means another day of impossible choices: Do I pay for my parent’s medication or m