Dr. Rachel Werner: Cost of caring for parents

Expert on Camera

We talk a lot about the cost of childcare in the United States, but what about the cost of caring for older adults? More than nine million Americans rely on help at home for daily activities, much of which is provided by over 37 million unpaid caregivers—contributing an estimated $600 billion each year.

On February 12, 2025, SciLine interviewed: 

Dr. Rachel Werner, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the executive director of Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. She discussed topics including:

• Who pays for long-term services and supports in the U.S.
• Why health insurance often does not cover in-home caregiving, and how this impacts family members or other unpaid caregivers who bridge that gap;
• The financial and economic stress of caregiving, including adult children caring for aging parents;
• What research says about the hidden costs for caregivers; and
• What’s being done to alleviate these costs, including proposed tax credits for families.