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Washington, DC - The March/April 1999 issue of the journal, Health Affairs, included a study of the market value of informal caregiving in the United States. In their article, The Economic Value of Informal Caregiving, authors Peter S. Arno, Carole Levine, and Margaret M. Memmott conclude that the “current market value of care provided by unpaid family members and friends to ill and disabled adults” was $196 billion in 1997 - far more than the $32 billion spent that year on formal home health care or the $83 billion on nursing home care. The study was based on analysis of several national data sets, including the Survey on Income and Program Participation, the National Survey of Families and Households, the National Health Interview Survey, and the National Long-Term Care Survey. The authors conclude that their study provides “a tangible measure of the vast but vulnerable base upon which our chronic care system rests,” and suggest that policy-makers address the issue through tax credits, Social Security credits for caregivers who lose time from paid employment, and amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Washington, DC - A survey of state emergency medical services do-not-resuscitate laws reports that as of March 1999, 40 states have EMS-DNR statutes, laws or protocols. The survey, conducted by ABCD Board member Charles Sabatino, appeared in the spring issue of Bifocal, the newsletter of the ABA Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly, where Sabatino is assistant director. For more information, visit the commission online at www.abanet.org/elderly and order a copy of the report.
Kansas City, MO - The Community-State Partnerships project and the Last Acts Campaign are publishing a series of policy briefs designed to reach an audience beyond the usual policymakers, researchers, and bureaucrats who read such reports. Titles include, Using Qualitative and Quantitative Data to Shape Policy Change; Oregon Health Decisions: Lighting the Way to Common Ground; Implementing End-of-Life Treatment Preferences Across Clinical Settings, and, Advances in State Pain Policy and Medical Practice. To order copies or receive future titles, submit contact information to the Community-State Partnerships National Program Office, fax: 816.842.3440 or e-mail: partners@midbio.org
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This content is provided by Americans for Better Care of the Dying. For more information, visit www.abcd-caring.org.