How Hillary Clinton Is Making Aging Parents a 2016 Issue
As the article says--Hillary's proposal is a start. Thank you Hillary.
How Hillary Clinton Is Making Aging Parents a 2016 Issue
https://newrepublic.com/article/124806/hillary-clinton-making-aging-parents-2016-issue?utm_content=buffer03565&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
America's "invisible workforce" of family caregivers desperately needs help—and Democratic proposals are a start, at least.
By Suzy Khimm
December 1, 2015
...............We have yet to adjust accordingly. As Gawande explains, countries like the U.S. are no longer full of large, multigenerational families who can swoop in and provide that help.................
That’s why it’s fairly remarkable that family caregiving has come up in the 2016 campaign at all. All three Democratic candidates have offered some form of support to Americans who take time out of the workforce to care for ailing adult relatives, with Hillary Clinton unveiling her plan last week. It’s the first presidential race in recent memory where leading candidates have highlighted the need to support caregivers for elderly and disabled family members—a shift that reflects not only a focus on family-oriented economic policies, but also the huge demographic changes on the horizon. ..............
The policy solutions that Democrats are proposing are undeniably modest, given the scope of the problem. Clinton recently called for a new tax credit to help family caregivers who assist adult relatives who are elderly, disabled, or chronically ill; it would help offset up to $6,000 in annual expenses tied to caregiving. Her plan also includes an expansion of Social Security that would allow those who take off time from work for family caregiving to earn credits for their Social Security benefits. Neither Bernie Sanders nor Martin O’Malley have come out in support of the tax credits, but both candidates support the expansion of Social Security for family caregivers. (Shockingly, there’s been radio silence from Republicans on the topic.)
Clinton is making the most concerted effort to turn family caregiving into a 2016 issue. It fits into her broader campaign strategy to provide concrete solutions for ordinary, middle-class families, particularly through targeted tax credits that could play well in a general election. It’s unclear how much low-income families will benefit, as Clinton hasn’t indicated whether she’ll make the tax credits refundable, or how she’ll ultimately pay for the plan. But she has been raising the issue with frequency: ...........
Clinton’s caregiving plan is also designed to appeal to women, who make up about two-thirds of family caregivers. ...................
The underlying message is that this unpaid labor has a real value: Clinton pegs the value of family caregiving work at $470 billion per year, which is the AARP’s estimate. ....................
That’s why advocates for family caregivers are lobbying for a more inclusive form of paid leave that includes caring for adult relatives, as well as young children. Both Clinton and Bernie Sanders support paid family leave that includes taking time off for chronically ill relatives. But the topic of elder care rarely comes up in the broader debate around paid leave, which continues to be fixated on working mothers—rather than working parents of both genders, or working children-of-ailing-parents.
“People still talk about it as paid parental leave—we really need to be talking about paid family leave,” says Julie Kashen, senior policy adviser at Make It Work, which advocates for progressive family policies. “Not everyone ’s going to become a parent, but most people are going to grow old.”......................
The larger problem, though, is the failure to recognize that there is a need for care in the first place. Many Americans don’t realize that while Medicare covers rehab and short-term nursing stints after a serious illness, the program doesn’t pay for long-term care—and only a small fraction of Americans sign up for private long-term care insurance. If they do need help, it comes at a steep cost: ......................
That’s the bigger reason that family members are shouldering the personal and financial burden: There is no safety net for care—the assistance required for day-to-day living—unless you’re poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act originally included a long-term insurance program called the CLASS Act, but it wasn’t financially viable, partly because it failed to attract enough participants.
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None of the Democratic candidates appear ready to make the leap either. Even Senator Sanders, who supports Medicare for all to make health coverage universal, has yet to roll out a sweeping solution for long-term care. (Denmark, unsurprisingly, has universal, publicly financed long-term care.) But advocates for long-term care insurance acknowledge that a comprehensive solution is still a long way off, politically speaking. They welcome the mere fact that the Democrats, particularly Clinton, have made the issue part of the campaign conversation. Clinton’s proposal “does not give us a system for providing long-term services and support, so we need to buck up what we got,” says Judy Feder, a fellow at the Urban Institute and Georgetown professor. But “the issue isn’t so much whether it goes far enough, but that it’s a start.”
Suzy Khimm is a senior editor at The New Republic.
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