What do the presidential candidates say about disability issues? Not much...
Plus: Calculate the cost of your caregiving labor and one UK medical mama blasts her government for its bureaucracy and systemic failures
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From CBS News: “Families sacrifice time and money caring for loved ones. A new caregiver calculator reveals the high cost.”
Across the U.S., family members caring for loved ones provide an estimated $600 billion in unpaid services each year, sacrificing time, money and often their well-being to care for aging loved ones, according to an AARP survey.
As Congress considers a bill that would provide family caregivers a tax credit, quantifying how much that time is worth is proving to be difficult.
[…]The financial toll on families can be high. AARP calculated family caregivers spend an average $7,242 of their own money each year, according to a 2021 survey. That doesn't include the time they spend taking care of things, such as managing medication, finances and food prep.
[…]Salary.com and Otsuka America Pharmaceuticals Inc., makers of medications for mental illnesses and brain diseases, said they created a new tool which offers a clearer picture of the financial cost of caregiving. The cost is often hidden but felt deeply by families everywhere.
Lowe tried the Family Caregiver Calculator, which calculates the financial value of caregiving based on geography, time spent, and the type of work done for family caregivers. When she entered the hours she and her siblings spend caring for their mother, the result was $270,103 per year.
"It's unbelievable," Lowe said. "Something should be done about that."`
[…]While some states have programs that allow family caregivers to receive compensation, Goyer explained these opportunities are limited.
A recent report to Congress by the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregiving Council proposed several potential solutions to ease this burden, including a federal tax credit for family caregivers, immigration reform to expand the caregiver workforce, and expanding grant programs for states.
These solutions offer hope to families struggling under the burden of caregiving but require congressional action. If passed, the Credit for Caring Act, introduced in Congress this year, would provide a federal tax credit of up to $5,000 to qualifying caregivers.[…]
• From Disability Scoop: “As Election Nears, Presidential Candidates Largely Mum On Disability Issues”
People with disabilities are poised to be a powerful voting bloc in the upcoming election, but issues important to this population are getting little attention, advocates say.
A report out this week from Rutgers University shows that an estimated 40.2 million people with disabilities will be eligible to vote in the Nov. 5 presidential election. That’s more potential voters with disabilities than eligible voters who are Hispanic or Black.
Moreover, the data indicates that a third of all eligible voters are either people with disabilities or individuals who live with someone who has a disability.
“People with disabilities are the sleeping tiger in American politics,” said Lisa Schur, co-director of the Rutgers Program for Disability Research and an author of the report. “They represent a large and growing portion of the electorate, and they could make a critical difference in the outcome of this and future elections.”
Despite this, advocates say that the presidential candidates aren’t doing much to appeal to this constituency.
Multiple disability organizations said that they haven’t received any response from the campaigns of former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris to questionnaires or memos outlining concerns significant to this population.
[…]Harris recently announced a plan to expand Medicare to cover in-home health. If approved, the proposal, which would primarily help seniors receive care in their homes rather than in institutional environments, could benefit individuals with disabilities who are dual eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, said Nicole Jorwic, chief of advocacy and campaigns at Caring Across Generations, an organization advocating for caregivers and people who rely on them. Expanding Medicare could also potentially alleviate pressure on Medicaid’s long-term care system by shifting costs for some beneficiaries, she said.
In addition, Harris’ campaign website indicates that she’s committed to “expanding high-quality home care services for seniors and people with disabilities” and that she wants to end the use of subminimum wage.
The issues page on Trump’s website does not make any mention of people with disabilities and advocates said they had not seen any proposals from the former president to address long-term care. Meanwhile, Trump recently drew broad condemnation for describing Harris as “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled” during speeches as his campaign rallies.[…]
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• From The Sun (United Kingdom) (opinion): “I’ve fought for better support for disabled children for 15 years… the cries of anguished parents have never been louder”
[…]Elvi is incredible but the bureaucracy surrounding her and most disabled or neurodivergent children makes me and her dad feel like we’re pushing a rock up a mountain. every day, with the weight of the State pushing it back against us.
[…]As a result of better understanding of neurodivergent conditions, like autism and ADHD, and doctors being able to keep complex needs children alive for longer, we’ve had an increase in the numbers of children with SEND but no resources to meet their needs.
[…]While politicians stroke their chins, families sick of institutional gaslighting have become more and more desperate.
[…]In September a mother and her disabled daughter died in their home in Salford in what police suspect was a murder/suicide. Investigations are ongoing so we don’t yet know the details but so many parents have said to me: “I am not surprised.”
That’s not to suggest that they don’t value the lives of their children but that you can become so exhausted from caring and fighting authorities and so distrustful of the organisations that would be in charge of your child if anything happened to you, that you would understand taking this action.
That’s how little trust there is now in the system. Rebuilding that trust should be first on the Government’s to-do list.
The second should be working across different departments to ensure they are looking after all the areas that feed into a child’s life, from education to health and social to benefits and sport.
And third, understanding that there is a perfectly good law protecting children’s rights but it needs investment to work, investment that will save taxpayers’ money in family breakdowns, wasting children’s talents and causing more severe physical and mental harm to children in the long run.[…]
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