BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1526
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1526 (Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care)
As Introduced March 16, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Aging |6-0 |Brown, Hadley, Gray, | |
| | |Levine, Lopez, | |
| | |Mathis | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Health |13-0 |Bonta, Maienschein, | |
| | |Burke, Chiu, Gomez, | |
| | |Lackey, Nazarian, | |
| | |Patterson, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Ridley-Thomas, | |
| | |Rodriguez, | |
| | |Steinorth, Waldron, | |
| | |Wood | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
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| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, Gordon, | |
| | |Holden, Jones, | |
| | |Quirk, Rendon, | |
| | |Wagner, Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Directs the Department of Public Health (DPH), beginning
January 1, 2016, to include the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's (CDC) Caregiver Module in the annual
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey.
Background: The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
(BRFSS) is a cross-sectional telephone survey that state health
departments conduct with a standardized questionnaire, and
technical and methodological assistance from CDC. BRFSS is used
to collect prevalence data among United States residents regarding
behaviors that create health risks, as well as preventive
practices that reduce health risks. Data is forwarded to CDC,
aggregated for each state, returned with standard tabulations, and
published at year's end. In 2011, more than 500,000 interviews
were conducted nationwide. By collecting behavioral health risk
data at the state and local level, BRFSS has become a powerful
tool for targeting and building health promotion activities. As a
result, BRFSS users have increasingly demanded more data and asked
for more questions on the survey.
BRFSS Caregiver Module: Beginning in 2009, a special set of 10
questions have been available to examine various aspects of
caregiving, referred to as the "Caregiver Module." The questions
allow states to determine who is a caregiver; the relationship
between the caregiver and the care recipient; the average hours of
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caregiving per week; the most difficult problem facing the
caregiver; the age and gender of the care recipient; the types of
assistance needed by the care recipient; the major health problem,
long-term illness, or disability of the care recipient; the
duration of caregiving; and whether the person has had more
difficulty with thinking or remembering in the past year. The
responses from the caregiver module are then paired with
information from the main BRFSS questionnaire, which allow for
additional information about the health and well-being of
caregivers.
Caregiving: California is home to the largest number of seniors
in the nation and their numbers are expanding at a pace
unprecedented in history. Caregivers support the needs of
dependent individuals in a variety of ways, performing a range of
tasks, including companionship, light house-keeping, meal
preparation, and personal care to name just a few. More complex
and sensitive tasks include money management, medication
management, communicating with health professionals, and
coordinating care. The Family Caregiver Alliance finds that many
family members and friends do not consider such assistance and
care "caregiving" - they are just doing what comes naturally to
them: taking care of someone they love. But that care may be
required for months or years, and may take an emotional, physical
and financial toll on caregiving families.
The value of the services family caregivers provide for "free,"
when caring, was estimated to be $450 billion in 2009. The
estimated value of unpaid care in California is $47 billion,
accounting for over 3.8 billion hours of care. On the personal
side, long-term caregiving has significant financial consequences
for caregivers, particularly for women. Informal caregivers
personally lose about $659,139 over a lifetime: $25,494 in Social
Security benefits; $67,202 in pension benefits; and $566,443 in
forgone wages. Caregivers face the loss of income of the care
recipient, loss of their own income if they reduce their work
hours or leave their jobs, loss of employer-based medical
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benefits, shrinking of savings to pay caregiving costs, and a
threat to their retirement income due to fewer contributions to
pensions and other retirement vehicles.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Committee on
Appropriations, General Fund (GF) costs to CDPH of $150,000 GF per
year for five years, assuming costs stay the same over the five
year period.
Analysis Prepared by:
Robert MacLaughlin / AGING & L.T.C. / (916)
319-3990
FN: 0000619