{"id":4691,"date":"2026-03-30T12:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thescanfoundation.org\/?post_type=news-insight&p=4691"},"modified":"2026-06-18T09:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:45:10","slug":"caregiving-crisis-is-long-term-care-financing-reform-the-solution","status":"publish","type":"news-insight","link":"https:\/\/www.thescanfoundation.org\/es\/news-insight\/caregiving-crisis-is-long-term-care-financing-reform-the-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Caregiving Crisis: Is Long-Term Care Financing Reform the Solution?"},"template":"","class_list":["post-4691","news-insight","type-news-insight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-insight_type-insight"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_accent_color":"blue","helper_taxonomies":{"priority_tax":[7],"location":false,"news-insight_type":[17],"resource_type":false,"event_type":false,"person_type":false,"year_tax":false,"asset_class":false,"investment_type":false,"investment_category":false},"helper_authors":[{"person_type":"linked","author_linked":[1512],"author_manual":""}],"abstract":"The United States is at an inflection point.\u00a0<\/span>As our population ages, the demands\u00a0on\u00a0our long-term care system are accelerating; however, the system itself has not kept pace.\u00a0<\/span>What we are witnessing is often described as a \u201ccaregiving crisis,\u201d but that framing understates the reality.<\/span>","featured_image":2615,"":null,"source_logo":"","source_name":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"The United States is at an inflection point.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAs our population ages, the demands\u00a0on\u00a0our long-term care system are accelerating; however, the system itself has not kept pace.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhat we are\u00a0witnessing\u00a0is often described as a \u201ccaregiving crisis,\u201d but that framing understates the reality. This is not simply about individual\u00a0responsibility; it is a structural failure in how we finance and deliver care in this country.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nRecent data shows that\u00a0<\/span>86 percent of\u00a0the country\u2019s\u00a063 million\u00a0family caregivers<\/span><\/a> support someone aged 50 or older, numbers that will undoubtedly increase as the population ages. These caregivers are taking on more complex and intensive responsibilities, facing emotional strain, financial stress, and social isolation. Despite this reality, most receive little guidance, training, or formal help for the essential role they play in keeping loved ones safe in their community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAnd the impacts are real.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAs\u00a0Tiffany,\u00a0a caregiver from rural South Dakota and\u00a0a\u00a0<\/span>participant<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The\u00a0People Say,\u00a0a research effort to elevate the voices of older adults and caregivers to inform policy,\u00a0noted:\u00a0\"I'm his daughter, his oldest daughter. My mom passed away a\u00a0couple\u00a0years\u00a0ago.\u00a0He's\u00a090, hard hearing, little dementia going on. I went ahead and had him move in with me so I\u00a0can\u00a0take care of him. He doesn't\u00a0wanna\u00a0go into a nursing home, and I don't want to see him go into a nursing home. He has five kids.\u00a0He's\u00a0been a farmer. My job is to take care of him.\u00a0<\/span>I\u00a0can't\u00a0go and get\u00a0a job, but he\u00a0doesn't\u00a0make enough money to pay for everything and hire somebody to\u00a0come and take\u00a0care of him....\u201d\r\n\r\nWhat is accurately\u00a0being\u00a0described as a \u201c<\/span>caregiving burden<\/span><\/a>\u201d\u00a0in the United States\u00a0is a symptom of a\u00a0deeper structural weakness\u00a0in how we care for older adults and people with disabilities.\u00a0Caregiving is\u00a0core\u00a0to the\u00a0social\u00a0and economic infrastructure\u2014no less essential than healthcare, transportation, or education\u2014yet it\u00a0remains\u00a0largely invisible, propping up a system that would otherwise falter.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nReliable and affordable care support\u00a0should\u00a0not\u00a0be viewed as a luxury when\u00a0it\u00a0is a necessity; expecting families to shoulder caregiving alone, without adequate public\u00a0assistance, places an unreasonable and avoidable burden on them. Public programs should provide dependable support as a norm, but\u00a0they fall short of what families need to get\u00a0by.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nMany policies have been put forward to \u201cmeet caregivers where they are,\u201d focusing on alleviating symptoms like exhaustion, burnout, and information overload. These are valuable and laudable, but without addressing the root cause of why families shoulder so much responsibility themselves, we risk entrenching systemic policy gaps that have contributed to the lack of a stable and publicly financed long-term care system for all Americans.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nTo\u00a0help older adults age well\u00a0in home and community\u00a0and\u00a0to\u00a0support the\u00a0family\u00a0caregivers who make that possible,\u00a0we\u00a0must move beyond temporary patches and toward comprehensive, systemic reform\u00a0of\u00a0how\u00a0long-term services and supports (LTSS)\u00a0is paid for in this country.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nFor decades, US policy has layered piecemeal solutions onto a LTSS financing framework that was never designed to meet the scale or diversity of modern aging needs. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nCurrent\u00a0approaches\u00a0designed to help older adults\u00a0still frame\u00a0aging through a 1970s lens:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n