Policy Update

Three Caregiving Bills Arrive on Governor's Desk

The California Legislature passed three family caregiver bills, which now await Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature. Assembly Bill 537 allows workers to take job-protected leave to care for seriously ill adult children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, and parents-in-law. Senate Bill 727 allows workers to receive partial pay when they must miss work to care for their siblings, grandparents, grandchildren and parents-in-law, expanding on California's existing Paid Family Leave law. Senate Bill 836 adds "familial status" to the list of prohibited bases for employment discrimination under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, which not only protects workers from discrimination, but provides greater clarity to employers about their legal obligations to their employees.

There are an estimated four million family caregivers in California, more than any other state. Many of those caregivers struggle to balance their demands at work with their responsibilities to their family members, a balance that becomes much more difficult when a family member becomes sick or disabled and needs intense long-term care. Without job protection and the ability to take paid time off from work, many Californians would be forced to choose between working and providing care to a loved one. Please send letters to the Governor expressing your support for Assembly Bill 537, Senate Bill 727, and Senate Bill 836 and asking him to sign these three bills into law. Read More

Opinion: California Not Prepared for Rise in Alzheimer's Disease

In a San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece that appeared September 21, World Alzheimer's Day, William Fisher, CEO of the Alzheimer's Association of Northern California/Northern Nevada, writes about the lack of any statewide plan to address the expected rise in Alzheimer's disease. "[W]e cannot have a serious conversation about the economics of health care, or about saving Medicare and Medi-Cal, or reforming Social Security, without addressing Alzheimer's disease," which "affects all of these" issues.

Fisher notes that SB 321, legislation that would require the state to create an Alzheimer's disease plan to guide state public policy, is estimated to cost the state less than $200,000—"a speck in the California budget"—and something that eight other states already have done. However, since the measure was placed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file, Fisher writes, it is not "dead, but perilously close to it." Fisher criticizes legislative leaders for being "either unable or unwilling to find a way to let this bill move forward." He argues, "This absence of leadership threatens the future of thousands of Californians who are busy taking care of themselves today only to find California unprepared when they arrive in huge numbers tomorrow." Read More

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