NPAF Joins Two Dozen Patient Groups to Call for a National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program

National Patient Advocate Foundation joined more than two dozen patient groups and health care partners to call for a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program, including caregiving leave. The organizations are urging Congress to include a national paid leave program in the proposed upcoming spending package.

The groups demand that any national paid family and medical leave program must include:

• Medical, parental and caregiving leave;
• A broadly inclusive definition of family for caregiving purposes;
• Meaningful compensation or wage replacement in an amount that allows employees, including lower-income workers, to reasonably afford to take needed leave; and
• It must be available to all workers, regardless of employer size, including part-time, contingent and self-employed workers.

Roughly 13 percent of workers in the United States have access to employer-paid family leave and fewer than 40 percent have access to short-term disability insurance through their jobs that allows them to receive partial pay while they recover from their own serious health issue. Nearly 60 percent of workers qualify for job-protected, unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The groups sent their principles to Congressional leadership and the administration and plan to urge lawmakers to support paid leave for people with medical conditions and their caregivers in the coming months. Read the principle document for more detail.

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Patient groups and partners calling for a paid family and medical leave policy: Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators, The AIDS Institute, Alliance for Aging Research, ALS Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Association of Community Cancer Centers, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Cancer Support Community, Cervivor, Inc., COA Patient Advocacy Network, Community Oncology Alliance, Epilepsy Foundation, Family Voices, Hemophilia Federation of America, Mended Hearts & Mended Little Hearts, Muscular Dystrophy Association, National Alliance for Caregiving, National Alliance on Mental Illness, National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, National Hemophilia Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Organization for Rare Disorders, National Patient Advocate Foundation, Pulmonary Hypertension Association, Susan G. Komen, UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease and Zero – The End of Prostate Cancer.