Elder care costs are outpacing inflation. Americans want a lifeline.

Unlike consumer goods that can be clearly seen and touched, the expenses felt by families with sick or elderly relatives are GNPR-identified costs for a voter, Sharon Zimmer.

Chuck Zimmer of Onalaska, Wisconsin has been under his wife Zimmer’s care since he got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia in 2018.

“All the effort that we toil to save is returned to him,” said one of the 38 million plus Americans who serve as unpaid caregivers to relatives and loved ones — an appeal that Vice President Kamala Harris made last week to have Medicare pay for home healthcare.

New data from AARP reveals that family caregivers in the United States have increased by approximately 4 million since 2015 and have had to quit their jobs. For Sharon the decision came in the year 2021 when she relinquished almost all her part time retail employment because the tasks became overwhelming as she was tasked with the responsibility of taking care of Chuck now 67 years old. It reduced their annual household income by about $ 23,861.

At this stage, the couple enjoys Medicare and, while they did not enroll in the programme when the man got diagnosed with cancer, it really hit the family big time. Still, neither the Zimmers have been able to cease contributing to his care out of their retirement savings. They are expected to spend more than seventeen thousand US dollars this year on travel, meals and accommodation apart from security and transport.

That is much higher than the current $7,200 every unpaid caregivers spends annually, $7, 000 if in 2016, which has been estimated by AARP. Inflation, however, decelerated in September to a measly 2.4 percent a year, although the cost for home-based care of the sick and elderly rose to 8.7 percent from the same period last year, according to federal figures.

Sharon described Harris’ proposal as massive. Though she had been leaning toward voting for Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, on women’s rights, she was chanting ‘this is a decisive factor for us’ of the new plan.

“As of today, Harris would have my vote,” said Sharon, who lives in a swing state — where Harris is slated to hold her sixth campaign trip Thursday –while surrounded by friends mostly supporting Trump.

The expenses associated with caregiving have stayed high, pinching millions of households from income even as price rises in other items slow down or even turn around. Some are recurring and core that always drain other sources of reserve, according to Kelsey Flock, a dementia care specialist at the Aging and Disability Resource Center of La Crosse County, Wisconsin.

“If your love one is diagnose at a younger age, they’re losing their retirement, they’re losing their income, maybe losing the primary caregiver’s health Insurance,” Flock said, “so you’re having to come up with all of those extras.”

Trump has also declared that he will reduce the costs of the caregiver though without naming the particular laws. In that case, any attempt to do so by the next administration, would probably have to be made through a new legislative session.

In a fact sheet about the at-home care plan the Harris campaign stated that the plan would be fully paid for by “expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing the discount that drug manufacturers provide for certain brand-name drugs to Medicare, and cracking down on Medicare fraud.” The campaign did not forecast the expense of the proposal but said such other similar campaigns have been approximated to be $40 billion per year.

In response to multiple requests for comment, the Trump campaign twice provided the same statement (as written): “By defeating by historic inflation, lowering prices, no taxes on Social Security, President Trump’s economic agenda will Make America Affordable Again for caregivers and elders my.”

Caregiving AARP data shows that the average caregiver uses about a quarter of his or her income on out of pocket expenses. Thus when it comes to caregiving people aged 18-34 spend 42% of their income. For African Americans, it’s 34%, and among Hispanic and Latino caregivers only, they spend about 47%.

“Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries were less likely to use higher-quality home health agencies, according to my study,” says Shekinah Fashaw-Walters, a medical ethics and health policy teacher at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “This lack of access means that it takes more time, more energy, more knowledge and resources for a caregiver to find the support that they need for their loved one.”

As with the Zimmers, most families discover that Medicare and Medicaid are not all-embracing in their coverage of the expenses concerning elder care, especially with regard to chronic conditions in patient with dynamic needs. Medicare pays for Chuck’s drugs but not for the nursing home or for him to stay at home. The couple bought a long-term care policy when they were in their 50s, but they say the out-of-pocket costs for a memory care facility would be too high and they do not meet the criteria for Medicaid.

Such coverage gaps are not an isolated incident, according to David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. “This really puts a spotlight on how dysfunctional our care system still is for people with dementia and their families,” he said.

There has been a growing discourse on child care affordability but elder care has not been as muchché discussed say experts in the 2024 campaign. “Although it may be demanding, it also remains something that is considered to be a positive, says Joseph Gaugler, director of the Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. “It’s really an issue of public health importance.”

But as Flock strongly pointed out, “if we’re looking at child care, we’re being bias if we’re not looking at elder care.”

Republican and Democratic versions of the ideas were introduced in January and would grant a tax credit for caregivers to offset spending on out of pocket and up to $5000. The bill has been proposed in Congress five times since 2016 and AARP supports it However, it’s never been discussed on the floor.

Before the Harris campaign put forward the policy idea, it existed on the periphery, with Sharon Zimmer Trainor eyeing a proposed $500 caregiver tax credit, also promoted by AARP, that state legislators have entertained in recent sessions but have not adopted. Its sponsor, AARP, looks forward to reintroducing it in January.

“Every little bit counts and looking at it that way too, $500 does not buy eyegear,” she responded.