The Campaign Trail: Who's Talking About Caregivers?

The conventions are over and the campaign is going into its final days. This is a big election for family caregivers because healthcare reform is going to be a major issue for the next president, regardless of who he is.

But family caregiving is not an issue that is at the top of the list of either presidential candidate or members of Congress. Our problems and solutions for them are not discussed on the campaign trail, so how do we get some attention. We don't talk about family caregiving. That's how. We talk about the issues of chronic disease.

Chronic disease or disability is the reason we are family caregivers. Dad's Alzheimer's, Mike's spinal cord injury, Julie's MS don't have cures. There is no magic pill. They go on and on year after year and they become the fabric of our lives. Find ways to improve care and cut costs for those with chronic conditions and in the process you also make life better for family caregivers. After all we may not have a clinical diagnosis like our loved ones do, but we do have a psychosocial one that ironically makes us more prone to actually having a chronic illness ourselves. We and our loved ones and their diagnosis are intertwined.

When you look at the nation's healthcare costs it is pretty easy to see that people with chronic conditions cost insurers, public and private, more money than any other type of patient. Just see these statistics.

People with chronic conditions account for 81% of hospital admissions; 91% of all prescriptions filled, and 76% of all physician visits. In 2005 all health spending in the US amounted to $2 trillion. More than 75% of that went for the treatment of chronic disease

If people with chronic conditions were really getting high quality and safe care we might be able to justify these dollars, but they aren't. So here we are paying "trillions" of dollars and not even getting the best and safest care possible.

That's why we need to speak up. We need better care for those with chronic conditions. We need appropriate care, which often means just time talking with a physician so symptoms can be well managed. Unfortunately doctor's don't' get paid for talking. They get paid for doing something -- performing a test, setting a bone.

Paying physicians for providing good primary care is not going to solve the entire chronic care problem. There are many interconnected threads here, but it is a clear and graphic way of talking about the problem that everyone can understand.

There are so many things that need to change in our healthcare system, but if we can turn the tide and help patients with chronic conditions get the kind of care they need, we'd be well on our way to creating a truly positive change in how America provides and pays for healthcare. And we'd be well on our way to improving the lives of family caregivers and their loved ones.