Passing Iowa CARE Act Top Priority During 2019 Legislative Session

Legislative Session Begins Jan. 14

Passing Iowa CARE Act is Top Priority!

Once again, the Iowa legislative session is upon us, beginning Monday, Jan. 14, followed by the Governor’s State of the State address on Tuesday. For AARP Iowa, our top legislative priority is passing the 2019 Iowa CARE Act, a no-cost, common-senses bill that provides needed support to Iowa's 317,000 family caregivers when their loved one is admitted to the hospital and discharged home.

The 2019 Iowa CARE Act features four important provisions:  

Designate: The name of the family caregiver is recorded when a loved one is admitted into a hospital, IF a patient chooses to designate one.

Consult: The hospital discusses the caregiver’s abilities and limitations.

Instruct: The hospital discusses the patient’s care needs at home and provides an explanation and live instruction of the medical tasks to be performed at home – such as medication management, injections, wound care, and transfers.

Thanks to advocates like you, great progress has been made on the CARE Act in Iowa over the past year: 

• During her re-election campaign this fall, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds expressed her support for the CARE Act.
• More than a dozen healthcare advocacy groups across the state have signed on in support of the bill.
• There is currently no registered opposition to the legislation.

Despite this progress, Iowa remains one of only 13 states that do not have CARE Act type provisions for family caregivers. We need your help to ensure that Iowans receive the same type of protections that so many other caregivers across the country already have, by passing the CARE Act this session.

Stay tuned for our Action Alert next week, where you can contact your legislators directly asking them to support the CARE Act. For the latest information on the 2019 Iowa CARE Act, visit aarp.org/IACareAct2019.

Caregiver Stories Needed!

It's the personal stories of family caregivers that can have the biggest impact on legislators and their decision whether or not to support a bill, like the 2019 Iowa CARE Act. Do you have a caregiver story to tell involving yourself, a friend, or a loved one? Have you been in a caregiving situation where you have provided medical care at home for your family member following their hospital discharge? Please share your story with us through this link.

New Iowa Caregiving Survey Results

Results of a new statewide caregiving survey show that 96 percent of current family caregivers in Iowa believe it is ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important that they receive instruction on medical tasks they need to provide for their loved one at home upon being discharged from the hospital. Click here to read more about the survey.