Mediate Michigan

Family caregivers – increasingly, middle-aged offspring taking care of their elderly parents – provided $450 billion worth of unpaid home care in 2009, says AARP. That’s more than the country’s total Medicaid spending that year – more, for that matter, than WalMart’s total sales in 2009.

It’s also 20 percent higher than unpaid home care totals for two years earlier.”

If the family caregiver were no longer available, we’d see an immediate rise in nursing home use and rehospitalization,” said Susan Reinhard, AARP senior vice president for public policy.

“Being a family caregiver is becoming a fact of life, and it’s becoming more complicated because of the increasing demands of health care.”

For two-thirds of older adults, family members are the only source of care.

via A surge in the ranks of unpaid caregivers for elderly relatives – KansasCity.com.