THE SENATE

S.C.R. NO.

121

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

requesting the Executive Office on Aging to provide data on Hawaii's family caregivers and the older adults to whom they provide assistance.

 

WHEREAS, family members, as caregivers, maintain the strength and durability of the family network as the primary providers of long-term care; and

WHEREAS, families, not institutions, are the major providers of long-term care, providing eighty per cent of all caregiving services at home; and

WHEREAS, if the services provided by informal caregivers, that is, by family members, friends, and neighbors, had to be replaced with paid services, it would cost an estimated annual $196,000,000,000 nationally; and

WHEREAS, it was estimated that in 1997, approximately 114,872 caregivers in Hawaii provided 106,900,000 hours of care, at a value of $874,600,000; and

WHEREAS, in 2003, it was estimated that in Hawaii:

(1) Almost twenty-one per cent of the adult population, or 198,816 individuals, were family caregivers to a person over age sixty;

(2) Of these caregivers, thirty per cent were caring for their spouses or partners and twenty-one per cent were caring for a parent; and

(3) Adult caregivers comprised twenty-two per cent of those between age thirty and fifty-nine, thirty per cent of those between age sixty and sixty-nine, and seventeen per cent of those seventy years of age or older; and

WHEREAS, with the aging of the baby boomer population, by 2020 more than one in four individuals in Hawaii will be sixty years of age or older; and

WHEREAS, as Hawaii's population ages, greater numbers of families will provide long-term care to frail and disabled older adults; and

WHEREAS, five social trends may affect the supply of caregivers in the future:

(1) Increasing divorce and remarriage rates;

(2) Increasing geographic mobility;

(3) Decreasing family size;

(4) Delayed childbearing; and

(5) More women in the workplace; and

WHEREAS, the financial impact of caregiving takes a particular toll on family members when it affects their ability to work; and

WHEREAS, of those working caregivers caring for a family member or friend aged sixty-five or older, two-thirds report having to rearrange their work schedules, decrease their work hours, or take an unpaid leave in order to meet their caregiving responsibilities; and

WHEREAS, as a result of their caregiving, informal caregivers are estimated to each lose an average of $25,494 in Social Security benefits, an average of $67,202 in pension benefits, and an average of $566,433 in wage wealth, defined as the current value of lifetime wages calculated as of the date of retirement, for a combined total loss of $659,129 over a lifetime; and

WHEREAS, reimbursing family caregivers is supported by several long-term care advocates who believe that it is superior to other proposed financial incentives such as caregiver tax credits, which would assist only the more affluent and not the caregivers most in need of assistance; and

WHEREAS, now is the time to provide caregiver support and financial incentives as part of our long-term care system so that older adults can remain at home with their families for as long as possible, and rising costs of long-term care expenditures, particularly for nursing home care, can be controlled; and

WHEREAS, the need has become evident to offer financial relief and incentives to family caregivers who, by providing at-home care to qualified relatives, keep those disabled persons from burdening the Medicaid system and out of costly long-term care institutions; and

WHEREAS, before legislation can be proposed to provide financial relief and incentives to family caregivers, the Legislature needs more definitive data relating to Hawaii's caregivers and the people that they serve; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Executive Office on Aging is requested to provide data on Hawaii's family caregivers and the older adults to whom they provide assistance; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the data provided by the Office on Aging is requested to include, but not be limited to, the demographics, needs, and financial costs of Hawaii's family caregivers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Executive Director of the Executive Office on Aging is requested to submit the requested data and related findings and recommendations to the Legislature, including any necessary proposed legislation, at least twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2005; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Executive Director of the Executive Office on Aging.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

Report Title:

EOA; Study Hawaii Family Caregivers and Older Adults Assisted