2 thoughts on “Doug Feingold Problem Memo: Increasing Burden on Informal Caregivers in Long-Term Care”
Doug, your evidence demonstrates the limits of medicare and medicaid as support for informal caregivers. The point that caregivers want to care for their families is an important one. Whether the government should intervene and help with this responsibility or not is key to your argument. Grown children have been caring for their elderly parents for as long as there have been elderly parents. And it has always been a serious responsibility. But why is it different now? Your point that medical expertise is often now needed is one example.
Is there something that makes it a harder job? Is it because elderly people are living longer with ill health? So the need for family care is lasting years instead of months so the burden is actually different than in the past?
This is great topic Doug. I agree with Maureen, this topic does tend to cause debates due to peoples views on government intervention and its role on our long term care. You present a great amount of evidence as to the growth of elderly population. Maureen is also correct with the fact that we are living longer. We also do not want to be reliant on our children or become a burden. Some argue its adult children’s responsibility to care for their parent, after all the parent cared for the child. I read an article a while back in the NYT regarding China facing this same issue. After the One Child law the dynamics in its population changed. The issue was that as Chinas industrial sector grew the children moved to cities for work. They are now too far to care for their parents in the rural area, the parents also do not want to become a burden on their child. The tax base is also not large enough to afford a massive LTC program.
I think the difficult part is conveying if it is the governments responsibility? I have heard of program suggestions where family members are trained and given a salary. A very conservative view is that it is a families responsibility and government should only intervene if their is no family.
Doug, your evidence demonstrates the limits of medicare and medicaid as support for informal caregivers. The point that caregivers want to care for their families is an important one. Whether the government should intervene and help with this responsibility or not is key to your argument. Grown children have been caring for their elderly parents for as long as there have been elderly parents. And it has always been a serious responsibility. But why is it different now? Your point that medical expertise is often now needed is one example.
Is there something that makes it a harder job? Is it because elderly people are living longer with ill health? So the need for family care is lasting years instead of months so the burden is actually different than in the past?
This is great topic Doug. I agree with Maureen, this topic does tend to cause debates due to peoples views on government intervention and its role on our long term care. You present a great amount of evidence as to the growth of elderly population. Maureen is also correct with the fact that we are living longer. We also do not want to be reliant on our children or become a burden. Some argue its adult children’s responsibility to care for their parent, after all the parent cared for the child. I read an article a while back in the NYT regarding China facing this same issue. After the One Child law the dynamics in its population changed. The issue was that as Chinas industrial sector grew the children moved to cities for work. They are now too far to care for their parents in the rural area, the parents also do not want to become a burden on their child. The tax base is also not large enough to afford a massive LTC program.
I think the difficult part is conveying if it is the governments responsibility? I have heard of program suggestions where family members are trained and given a salary. A very conservative view is that it is a families responsibility and government should only intervene if their is no family.