On February 10, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on the burdens faced by family caregivers.
In his opening statement, Chair Larry Craig (R-ID) announced his intention to introduce the Senior Eldercare Relief and Empowerment (SECURE) Act, a bill that would provide tax relief to family caregivers. Emphasizing the number of people who would benefit from an elder care tax credit, he stated, “One extraordinary strength of our long-term care system is that families not government provide 80 percent of long-term care for older persons in the United States. The Administration on Aging reports that about 22 million people serve as informal caregivers for seniors.”
Trudy Elliot, a family caregiver and home health care nurse, shared with the committee her personal experience as a member of the “sandwich generation,” those individuals sandwiched between caring for their elderly parents and their own children. Ms. Elliot cared for her elderly parents and a sister with terminal cancer. Although the financial burden was great, she considered herself more fortunate than other family caregivers. “Each time I was placed in this role of primary caregiver I was so grateful that I had a baseline working knowledge of the medical system and how to access the resources that were available in our community. Many times I wondered how the caregivers that had no knowledge of the available resources were surviving, not only emotionally, but financially as well.”
Testifying on behalf of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, Sandy Markwood stressed the financial, emotional, and physical burden of elder care on the caregiver. She explained that many caregivers choose to forego job advancements, to work part-time, or take a leave of absence from their jobs resulting in financial loss for the family. Retirement security is a problem particularly for women “who constitute the majority of this nation’s caregivers,” and who, “in general, already face greater retirement insecurity as a result of their lower wage base than men and the time that many take out of the workforce to raise children.” With regard to the physical burden on caregivers, Ms. Markwood cited an American Journal of Public Health report on caregivers that states, “Middle-age and older women caring for a relative were almost six times as likely to suffer depression or anxiety.”
Gail Hunt of the National Alliance for Caregiving explained that the profile of the family caregiver “is a 46-year-old baby boomer woman who is married and works and cares for her 77-year-old mother who lives nearby. The caregiver spends an average of more than 20 hours per week providing care, and caregiving typically lasts more than 4 years.” Ms. Hunt noted that in the past 80 percent of caregivers were women, but the trend is changing. “The latest research shows that nearly 4 in 10 family caregivers are men and, in the workplace, there is a nearly even gender split. This issue is gaining more visibility because employers see a greater impact on their bottom line when both male and female caregivers come in late, take leaves of absence, or take early retirement. Over half of working caregivers of both sexes come in late, leave early, and have to modify their work schedules,” she stated.
Testifying on behalf of the Seniors Coalition, Flora “Grandma” Green underlined her support for the SECURE Act and stated, “These individuals sacrifice much in order to provide the noble and compassionate service of caring for their elderly family members, and they deserve our full support.”
During the hearing, much of the discussion was focused on the limitations of Medicaid to pay for long-term care. Ms. Elliot explained that her parents were forced to exhaust their savings and “spend down” to be eligible for Medicaid. Richard Teske, a former Reagan Administration Health and Human Services official, noted that because of the incentive to spend down, the middle class is exhausting Medicaid. He also pointed out, “With the retirement of the baby boom generation, we can expect a possible quadrupling of [long-term care] costs in the next 15 years. This would bankrupt every state in the union.” Mr. Teske argued that the elder care tax credit is necessary “so that people will have the incentive to use their own resources rather than rely on Medicaid as a substitute for private [long-term care] insurance.”
