A 'gaping hole' in US health care? Millions of caregivers are overlooked

Caregivers in the United States face significant economic loss and stress to care for their families and friends during and after medical treatment, a fact that highlights a "gaping hole" in the U.S. health care system, Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, writes for the New York Times' "The Upshot." Another study published in Cancer in 2009 found that two-year caregiving costs exceeded $72,000 for lung cancer, $66,000 for ovarian cancer, $59,000 for lymphoma, and $38,000 for breast cancer. The U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act grants up to 12 workweeks of leave for employees to care for a family member with a health problem, "[b]ut that leave is unpaid," Carroll writes.