of these individuals will at some point require family care, and for older workers still in the workforce, many will need time off at some point to address serious health conditions. (9) Ensuring working family caregivers have paid family leave to care for seriously ill or injured older adult relatives could drive down Medicare costs by decreasing recurrences of ailments and re-admittance into hospitals. The implementation of California’s paid family leave insurance program, which has been in effect since 2004, accounted for an 11 percent relative decline in elder nursing home usage. (10) Only half of cancer patients and survivors report having access to paid leave, and only four in ten caregivers of those patients are able to take paid leave to help with completing treatment, managing symptoms and side effects, and caring for their own health. (11) Many workers are forced to quickly return to work after the birth or arrival of a child because they have no access to paid family and medical leave. Only half of new mothers take paid leave of any duration after the birth of their first child, and among women with less than a high school education the figure is less than 20 percent—a rate that has not changed in more than half a century. Access to paid leave is even rarer for men, as just 9 percent of private sector workers are employed at worksites that offer paid paternity leave to all male employees. Three out of every four fathers in white-collar jobs took one week or less of leave after their most recent child was born, and nearly 60 percent of low-income fathers reported taking zero weeks of paid time away from work after the birth or adoption of a child. (12) When new mothers have no choice but to return to work without taking leave, children can experience a variety of negative outcomes including higher rates of infant mortality, lower rates of breastfeeding, and lower rates of immunization. California’s paid leave program improved child health outcomes, particularly for economically vulnerable children, and