The Family Caregiver Act—Safeguarding the human care chain

The Family Caregiver Act—Safeguarding the human care chain
JAMA Pediatrics; by Eli Y. Adashi, I. Glenn Cohen; 9/25
On August 9, 2024, Jay Robert Pritzker, governor of Illinois, signed into law House Bill (HB) 2161 (Public Act 103-0797), likely the nation’s leading caregiving antidiscrimination legislation. The new law, which took effect January 1, 2025, prohibits employment discrimination against individuals saddled with family caregiving responsibilities. It is by dint of the enactment of HB 2161 that Illinois became the sixth state or district to legally require some form of this employee protection. Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, New York, and Washington, DC, precede it, though some of these limit their protection to parents. Moreover, HB 2161 defines personal care as activities wherein a family member assumes responsibility for one or all of the basic needs of an ailing relative, replete with the provision of emotional support and/or transportation to medical appointments. A covered family member may include a child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or a stepparent.
Assistant Editor's note: "The Human Care Chain"--what a wonderfully descriptive title this is to describe the Illinois law. Those words evoke strong images of connectedness, family, humanness, compassion, loyalty and love. As professional care providers of patients with serious and terminal illnesses, we cannot over-appreciate the tremendous power, value and comfort of The Human Care Chain.