63 million Americans are now caring for loved ones with chronic, disabling, or serious health conditions, according to a new report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving.
Andy Meyers, CEO, HealthDay
Today we're honored to welcome Rita Shula, Senior Director of Caregiving at the AARP Public Policy Institute.
Rita is one of the authors of the recently released Caregiving in the US 2025 Report, a sweeping look at the state of family caregiving in America. Thanks for joining us today.
Rita Choula, Senior Director of Caregiving, AARP Public Policy Institute
Good to be here, Andy. Thanks for having me.
Andy Meyers, CEO, HealthDay
I'd like to start by asking if you can give us a bit of background on the report and its history.
Rita Choula, Senior Director of Caregiving, AARP Public Policy Institute
So, AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving has been partnering since 1997, so almost 28 years now, to produce, to bring caregiving in the U.S. to light. It's a research study that is done every five years,
The 2025 release had almost 7,000 family caregivers that we were able to speak to and survey about their various lived experience honestly with their role as family caregivers.
Andy Meyers, CEO, HealthDay
What do you consider the most significant findings and takeaways from the report?
Rita Choula, Senior Director of Caregiving, AARP Public Policy Institute
There are a lot of findings. I would say a couple that I really like to highlight is the sheer growth in the number of family caregivers.
So, between 2015 and today's release of 2025, we now know that there are 63 million family caregivers. This is a 45% increase in the number of family caregivers. That is a huge number when you think about the individuals that are providing this care.
We also know that family caregivers are doing higher intensity care. So, they're doing more complex tasks in addition to things such as providing transportation, taking individuals to appointments, but they're doing more complex things as well.
And they're doing it for longer periods of time. And so, we see that the intensity of care is growing and we also see that individuals are not caring for somebody for say six months or a shorter acute time but they're caring for individuals up to five years and clearly more.
Andy Meyers, CEO, HealthDay
I'd like to jump onto that. The first point that you rose about the 45 % increase in family caregivers since 2020, since 2015. What do you think is driving that growth?
Rita Choula, Senior Director of Caregiving, AARP Public Policy Institute
One is the sheer fact that the population is aging.
Another piece that we are talking about around this is the sheer awareness of individuals actually seeing themselves as family caregivers.
Another issue is really, we see that people are living longer and with that, they're getting sicker and they're living with illnesses that decades ago they might not have lived that long for. And so now we see individuals that are still in the home with very serious illnesses that need individuals to provide that care… and that care typically falls to a family caregiver.
Andy Meyers, CEO, HealthDay
One of the points in the report talked about the impact to the caregivers, both financially and physically, for the work they do.
Rita Choula, Senior Director of Caregiving, AARP Public Policy Institute
We know that 60 % of family caregivers are working. And actually, when you look at those in the working ages between 18 and 64, we know that 70% of individuals within that age range are working.
So, imagine being that family member who is working a full-time 40 hour a week job and you're having to provide transportation. You're having to give and manage heavy medication regimens. You're having to do this while you're working means that there could be potentially impacts into your work life.
And so, what does that look like? It means you may have to take off of work more often. It may mean that you're not able to move up the so-called ladder in your career because you're having to be very focused in how you provide that care.
We also know that there's a significant amount of stress that family caregivers feel, especially working family caregivers. As you might imagine, having to balance so many different efforts at the same time, and that's not to mention the significant number of sandwich generation caregivers, 39%, who are trying to care for a child, a younger child, and care for older adult and more often than that work in a full-time or part-time environment.
Andy Meyers, CEO, HealthDay
What are the specific areas of support that the AARP Policy Institute is advocating now for caregivers?
Rita Choula, Senior Director of Caregiving, AARP Public Policy Institute
There are a number of things that AARP as a whole are advocating. One is a tax credit, a federal tax credit that goes to supporting family caregivers that are paying out of pocket for the many things that are required in the caregiving role. We also support state tax credits as well. Another piece, and this is exciting for us, it's an exciting movement on the policy landscape, is the recognition by CMS, so Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. One of the elements within CMS is paying providers to be a healthcare provider to be able to train family caregivers.
And so, there's a development in 2024 of these codes that family caregivers or those, excuse me, providers that are supporting family caregivers can you know what, you need training in these different areas and now they can receive that reimbursement to do so.
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