Family caregivers provide essential, life-sustaining and dignity-enhancing care to their loved ones every day of the year. Almost all of this care is provided for free and is unrecognized by business leaders and politicians, even though it has a very real impact on the economy. Now, a study by AARP has put a dollar figure on these care costs, and it is a whopping $350 Billion per year. The new study, Valuing the Invaluable: A New Look at the Economic Value of Family Caregiving , finds that family caregivers are the “backbone of the nation’s long-term care system” and play a vital role in providing care to adults with serious illness, chronic conditions and disabilities. The AARP news release about the study compares the $350 Billion value of what family caregivers provide to the total spent on Medicare ($342 Billion in 2005), Medicaid ($300 Billion in 2005) and the US budget deficit ($248 Billion in FY 2006). The family care-giving value far exceeds the Medicaid expenditures of a
This blog is written by Elder Law Attorney, Edward H. Adamsky. You will find articles about Elder Law, Estate Planning, Special Needs, Disability, Alzheimer's Disease, Powers of Attorney, Health Care Directives, and other issues of important to families and elders.