Click here to Tell Your Lawmakers to Vote YES on the Family Care Act!
The Family Care Act would establish a statewide family medical leave program in Pennsylvania.
The Family Care Act recognizes things we already know to be true: family takes care of family and people need the flexibility to focus on their health. By establishing a paid family medical leave program in Pennsylvania, the Family Care Act will allow:
- Family members to provide critical care for elderly or disabled loved ones
- Parents to be there for their children following birth/adoption/foster placement or care for their child during an illness
- Small businesses to give their employees a level of flexibility when they are not able to provide paid time off or health insurance.
Three reasons to support the Family Care Act
Pennsylvania Isn’t Getting Younger: Pennsylvanians 85 and older make up the fastest growing segment of our population. The Commonwealth has the 9th oldest population by state, with 19.1% of the population ages 65+.1 No parent wants to go to a nursing home – and no child wants to make that decision. Financially, nursing home care costs taxpayers over $3.2 billion a year.2 Pennsylvania’s Medicaid expenditures for individuals age 65 and older who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare total approximately $3 billion.3 Allowing a family member time off to care for an elderly parent not only keeps them out of nursing home care – it’s what families want, and what makes fiscal sense for our state.
Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance is Business Friendly: Many large businesses already offer paid leave. That’s a good thing. But the majority of our small businesses can’t afford to offer this critical benefit. Our Paid Family Medical Leave program, funded by a small employee payroll deduction, will enable small business to effectively compete – without shouldering the financial burden. Studies show that paid leave policies improve worker retention and productivity, and increased the ability of women with new babies and people with serious health conditions to stay in their jobs. And businesses like them too; surveys of employers in multiple states with paid leave programs reported positive impacts on retention and productivity.
Paid Family Medical Leave Strengthens the Middle Class: Paid Family Medical Leave Strengthens the Middle Class. Citizens and elected o icials alike understand how important it is to support our middle class. Giving hardworking, middle-class families time o to help loved ones on a sliding pay scale strengthens the bedrock of our economy. Individuals that receive paid leave are 4 times less likely to need food stamps or income subsidies a year following the birth of a new child.4 Not to mention that every month of paid maternity/paternity leave reduces the infant mortality rate by 13%.
