Economics of Caregiving Facts
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Facts:
- The value of the services family caregivers provide for "free" is
estimated to be $257 billion a year. That is twice as much as
is actually spent on homecare and nursing home services.
(Source: Peter S. Arno, "Economic Value of Informal
Caregiving," presented at the American Association of Geriatric
Psychiatry, February 24, 2002.)
- Caregiving families tend to have lower incomes than non-caregiving
families. Thirty-five percent of average American households
have incomes of under $30,000. Among caregiving families the
percentage is 43%.
(Source: National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) Random
Sample Survey of Family Caregivers, Summer 2000.)
- Of the estimated 2.5 million Americans who need assistive technology
such as wheelchairs, 61% can't afford it.
(Source: Lisa I. Iezzoni, M.D., M.Sc., 'When Walking Fails:
Personal and Health Policy Considerations,' Research in Profile,
a National Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, March
2002.)
- Out of pocket medical expenses for a family that has a disabled
member who needs help with activities of daily living (eating,
toileting, etc.) are more than 2.5% greater (11.2% of income
compared to 4.1%) than for a family without a disabled member.
(Source: Drs. Altman, Cooper and Cunningham, 'The Case of
Disability in the Family: Impact on Health Care Utilization and
Expenditures for Non-disabled Members' Milbank Quarterly 77 (1)
pages 39 - 75, 1999)
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