More than 60 million Americans are caring for an aging or ill family member while juggling a job, kids, or both. This week, Jason Resendez, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving, brought that reality to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging with three policy priorities: reauthorizing and boosting funding for the Older Americans Act and its National Family Caregiver Support Program (about $200 million a year), creating a national paid family and medical leave program, and expanding Medicare’s role in caregiver training and in-home health benefits.
Resendez called the $200 million “a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the need,” and he noted the U.S. is still one of the only industrialized nations without a paid leave program. Thirteen states and D.C. have created their own, with Virginia the first in the South. Asked which single policy would help most, he chose Medicare, saying changes there would deliver immediate support and modernize a program created in 1965.
For Suncoast families, the debate lands close to home. Many of our neighbors here in Sarasota, Bradenton, and the barrier islands are caring for parents or spouses while also managing hurricane season, red tide alerts, and everything else life on the Gulf Coast throws at them. Resendez’s simplest ask may be the easiest to act on: employers, just ask your workers whether they have caregiving responsibilities. Do you know where to find respite or caregiver training in our area?
