LTCI Watch: Hillary

Last week, I wrote a news article about Hillary Clinton “latching on” to the family caregiver support issue, and proposing a package of ideas for helping caregivers.

She suggested creating a tax credit that could help families pay up to $1,200 in caregiving costs; figuring out how to keep caregiving responsibilities from reducing family caregivers’ Social Security benefits; and finding a way to help family caregivers get respite breaks.

One reader noted my use of the term “latching on” and suggested that I “don’t approve of Hillary.”

The changes in the world that have me writing news and opinion blogs at the same time can be unsettling.

My approach is to try to be as non-partisan as I can be, partly because I love readers from all parties; partly because I genuinely believe that, when it comes to health-related issues, everyone is usually right; and partly because it just seems extremely boring for news reporters to have an obvious point of view on the major controversies of the day.

Why the heck read a news article by a reporter who, for example, has an obvious, party-line point of view about whether some government program should pay, or not pay, for long-term care (LTC) services for all? Swing voters are just plain more interesting.

But I do try to acknowledge major non-partisan biases, when I have them, and one of my biases is this: It seems as if, however we support family caregivers and other unpaid caregivers, supporting them in some way is a nice, important thing to do.

People who think the government should avoid taking responsibility for private social support could still back the idea of the government educating people about their responsibilities, and, maybe, recognizing who have found interesting, creative ways to meet those responsibilities.