Axios Event: Families carry financial burden due to caregiver shortages

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Family and unpaid caregivers often endure financial and emotional challenges when caring for aging or sick family members.

• Axios health care reporter Maya Goldman and Axios Pro health care policy reporter Victoria Knight moderated conversations with National Domestic Workers Alliance president Ai-jen Poo, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Administration for Community Living Administrator Maura Calsyn at the event. The event was sponsored by Otsuka.

Why it matters: While policymakers have recently proposed new solutions to help, our society still struggles with high cost of care and a shortage of caregivers for seniors.

What they're saying: "The two big pain points that I've heard from family caregivers around the country are the emotional stressors having to do with caregiving and then the financial stressors having to do with caregiving," Poo said.

Cammack introduced a bipartisan bill on the issue this year, the Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers Act, aiming to get more support to caregivers.

• "The bill is very simple, it just seeks to streamline the process, get more resources in front of caregivers and give them an expedited path to them," Cammack said.
• "This issue really doesn't belong to a party, this is an American issue, and we're going to solve it as such," she continued.

Low wages for paid caregivers and worker shortages are another issue impacting the caregiving workforce.

"Right now, training is wholly inadequate," Calsyn said. "The administration has done some really exciting things, I think, to incentivize that care."

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized a rule as part of a rural Medicare program the ability to have Medicare to pay for training for family caregivers, Calsyn explained.

What we're watching: How the new administration deals with issues surrounding caregiving.

• "We have heard that there is some interest in doing a family caregiver tax credit, but we've also heard that there's a desire to cut Medicaid, which is the program through which most people who need long-term care actually have access to it," Poo said.
• "You have this very unique group of people that all have either a personal story or a deep-rooted connection to somebody who's a caregiver, and I think that's why you're going to find that this issue actually gets a lot of coverage in the Trump administration," Cammack said.

Sponsored content:

In a View From the Top sponsored segment, Otsuka vice president of corporate affairs Debra Barrett noted research Otsuka sponsored with Columbia University showed 50 million unpaid caregivers in the United States perform more than three quarters of $1 trillion of labor each year.

• "$873 billion worth of labor – if family caregiving were a company or an entity, that would be the largest revenue generating company in the world," Barrett explained.