In-home elder care provided free would cost $306B
If you calculated the economic value of the nearly 80 percent of long-term care which is provided at home (largely by family members for no cost), the price tag would fall at about $306 billion. That's despite the fact that Medicaid, too, is spending big bucks for in-home care, with its budget tripling to $22.7 billion between 1996 and 2005. Since none of that is allowed to be spent for skilled nursing care, relatives often end up doing the nursing care themselves. Article