NPR covered the issue of eldercare recently, focusing on the question of family-based care and insurance coverage. If a family network of care providers can keep Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, or Dad at home and out of a nursing facility, should long-term care and health insurance companies help foot the bill?

The Department of Labor estimates that through 2018 and beyond there will be a critical shortage in professional caregivers, facilitating federal funding for home health aide training and certified nurse assistant training.  While hiring an HHA to help keep an elderly relative in the home, Medicare may only cover part of the cost, and at $20 + per hour, most families can't pay that expense out of pocket.

If a daughter, son, in-law or grandchild quits a job to care for an elder, should the caregiver be compensated? What if the caregiver completes HHA certification? 

Some states, such as Colorado, allow parents to be the paid personal care aide to disabled children. In other states, such as Massachusetts, a family member other than a parent (say, a grandparent) can be the appointed aide to a disabled child, and receive direct wages.

The NPR story doesn't offer solutions, but it certainly highlights a looming problem that won't go away as the baby boomers march toward their final decades.