Don’t you get nervous talking to attorneys? I do, and it’s been a nervous time for me lately.
I’ve been calling lawyers to ask about opening a trust — no,
I don’t really know what that is either, except I keep reading advice that I
should look into one, like, right now. You see, with advanced and progressing MS,
and with my wife and I both being seniors, we have a good-enough chance of needing
care down the line. While full-time home care can cost nearly $69,000 a year
(CNN) and a nursing facility at least $104,000 yearly (KFF), our home and life’s
savings won’t last long. To get any assistance, we’d have to qualify for
Medicaid, which requires selling off the home from under my wife. My nervousness
talking to attorneys is a small price to pay.
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We’re not alone. Seventy percent of us who live to be seniors will need care, according to the Urban Institute. More than 105 million in the “sandwich generation” are caregivers of some sort, a number that has more than doubled in the last decade (Rand Corporation). More than 14 million are caring for service members or veterans. Two-thirds of them have to balance this with a job, and often they take a hit in income by having to go to part-time work or taking time off (AARP).
Seventy percent of seniors. One hundred four million people.
Hm, think there’s a constituency there? Seniors just happen to be the most
reliable voters, too.
Citing her own experiences caring for her late mother battling
cancer, Vice Pres. Kamala Harris has proposed a Medicare at Home program, which
would expand Medicare to help with home care costs for seniors and people with
disabilities who might earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford
long-term care. She also wants to cap child care costs at 7% of income, pass
paid family and medical leave, and raise wages for care workers. (The last
one’s critical, because there is already a severe shortage of care workers due
to the poor pay.) She proposes paying for this with savings from negotiating
more prescription drug prices down with pharmaceutical makers, which has already
been successful with a handful of drugs under 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act.
This follows Pres. Biden’s ambitious 2021 proposal to invest
$400 billion in care services for children, seniors and people with
disabilities. That part of the Build Back Better bill got shot down in haggling
with Congress, but it was a bold target to set. Now the idea out there.
The need is great: I have spoken to an at-home care coordinator
in Pennsylvania who says people in her area are stuck in nursing homes not
because they need intensive care, but because there are no home workers
available so that they can live a place of their own in the community. Also
I’ve talked to the head of a statewide network of care workers in Austin, Texas,
who recited a list of care workers she knows who, out of love, continue to work
beyond what their aging bodies can handle, because there are no younger workers
to take their place in caring for their clients. According to Nicole Jorwic,
who has long watched the issue as head of advocacy at nonprofit Caring Across
Generations in Washington, D.C., "It doesn't matter if you're in Portland
or if you're in central Illinois, … it is a nationwide problem.” Plus, she
noted, the population is aging and the need for care will only increase.
This weekend Donald Trump proposed a tax credit be given to
family caregivers. Advocates like Jorwic are skeptical without details or ideas
to build up the needed care “infrastructure,” i.e., creating more care workers
and supports. But the point is that the care issue is on everyone’s radar now,
and that’s good for us.
But for now, I pick up the phone, and prepare to get nervous
again. Go vote and let them know we’re out here, people.