Posts tagged: caregiving challenges

When I walked into urgent care with a swollen, discolored leg and the terrifying suspicion that I might have a blood clot, I wasn’t just a worried patient — I was an experienced healthcare advocate. I knew the signs of deep vein thrombosis. I knew what tests to ask for. I knew how to navigate red tape, push past resistance, and demand timely care. And still, it took hours of persistence, multiple follow-ups, and escalating pressure just to get the proper diagnosis and treatment. My experience is not an outlier — it’s a symptom of a deeply inadequate system. In American healthcare, getting the care you need too often depends not on how sick you are, but on how well you can advocate for yourself. And that’s a terrifying prospect for the millions who can’t.

There’s a crisis quietly unraveling in American households, and it isn’t just emotional. It’s financial—and it’s happening behind closed doors, beneath layers of sacrifice and silence.

Ask almost any family caregiver, and they’ll tell you: the costs of long-term care go far beyond medications and medical bills. They seep into the very fabric of a family’s financial life—mortgages, retirement funds, college savings, careers derailed, and, often, homes sold just to keep someone they love safe.