SENATE MEMORIAL 1

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017

INTRODUCED BY

Bill B. O'Neill

FOR THE LEGISLATIVE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

A MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF INFORMAL OR FAMILY CAREGIVERS AND SUPPORTING MEASURES TO PROVIDE THEM WITH MEANINGFUL FINANCIAL RELIEF.

     WHEREAS, as of 2015, approximately twelve percent of New Mexico's population under the age of sixty-five and more than forty percent of its population aged sixty-five or older are persons with a disability; and

     WHEREAS, according to the United States census bureau, New Mexico's population of persons over seventy-nine years old will increase more than eighty percent in the next fifteen years; and

     WHEREAS, an "informal or family caregiver" is "an unpaid family member, friend or neighbor who provides care to a person with an acute or chronic condition and who needs assistance to manage a variety of tasks", from bathing and dressing "to tube feeding and ventilator care"; and

     WHEREAS, informal or family caregivers "remain the backbone of our nation's long-term care system"; and

     WHEREAS, informal or family caregivers take on many roles in addition to caring for the basic emotional and physical needs of a loved one, including medication management, providing transportation to medical appointments, providing care following discharge from a hospital or rehabilitation facility and serving as overall health care coordinators; and

     WHEREAS, according to the Pew research center, in 2015, there were forty million four hundred thousand unpaid informal or family caregivers for persons over the age of sixty-five in the nation, with nine out of ten caring for an aging relative who is in most cases a parent; and

     WHEREAS, most informal or family caregivers are between forty-five and sixty-four years old; and

     WHEREAS, twenty-seven percent of these caregivers provide help to two or more adults over the age of sixty-five, with one in five providing care on a daily basis; and

     WHEREAS, six in ten informal or family caregivers are employed, with one-half working full time; and

     WHEREAS, when a family caregiver over the age of fifty is forced to leave the workforce to care for a parent, "the economic toll is stunning", with the caregiver losing on average over three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) in wages and social security and pension benefits over a lifetime; and

     WHEREAS, the financial toll on a woman who assumes the role of caretaker in midlife exceeds on average three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars ($325,000) and may "substantially increase" her risk of "living in poverty and receiving public assistance" when she herself is aged; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico informal or family caregivers participating in a 2015 AARP survey expressed frustration that, while they earn too much to qualify for medicaid benefits, they did not earn enough to support the needs of their loved ones; and

     WHEREAS, sixty percent of those surveyed reported having used their own funds to provide care, with thirty-four percent reporting that they were financially strained due to their caregiving responsibilities; and

     WHEREAS, nationwide, out-of-pocket costs for caregivers of persons over fifty years old averaged five thousand five hundred thirty-one dollars ($5,531) in 2007; and

     WHEREAS, according to the New Mexico state plan for family caregivers, each year, four hundred nineteen thousand informal or family caregivers in New Mexico provide two hundred seventy-four million hours of unpaid services, with one out of five Hispanics serving as a family caregiver and ninety percent of long-term care in Indian country provided by family members; and

     WHEREAS, seventy-one percent of New Mexico family caregivers report being responsible for medical or nursing tasks, and seventy-four percent report being responsible for medication management; and

     WHEREAS, the New Mexico state plan for family caregivers estimates the total economic value of care provided by informal or family caregivers in New Mexico at three billion one hundred million dollars ($3,100,000,000) annually; and

     WHEREAS, the economic value of this care does not take into account cost savings attributable to informal or family caregiving: over two thousand dollars ($2,000) per day for hospital inpatient care in New Mexico; two hundred fourteen dollars ($214) per day for nursing home care in New Mexico; and three thousand three hundred thirty-three dollars ($3,333) per month for assisted living in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, as of 2015, the average cost for home health care in New Mexico was twenty-one dollars ($21.00) per hour, and the median hourly wage of a home health aide or personal care attendant was less than ten dollars ($10.00) per hour;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that, as recommended by the AARP public policy institute, meaningful financial assistance for informal and family caregivers through state or federal tax credits or other mechanisms be provided to ease the financial costs of caregiving and improve their financial security; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, as recommended by the AARP public policy institute, reforms such as social security caregiver credits for time spent out of the workforce for family caregiving be enacted; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, as recommended by the AARP public policy institute, the state seek to expand publicly funded home- and community-based services programs that allow payment to informal or family caregivers of consumers in its renewal of the state's medicaid waiver; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the human services department be requested to require in its contracts with medicaid managed care organizations that informal or family caregivers be reimbursed for care coordination activities; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to each member of New Mexico's congressional delegation; each member of the New Mexico legislature; the tribal leadership of every Indian nation, tribe and pueblo located wholly or in part in New Mexico; the secretary of health; the secretary of human services; the secretary of aging and long-term services; and every member and participant of the New Mexico family caregiver task force convened by the aging and long-term services department in 2014 pursuant to House Joint Memorial 4.

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