Learning Workshop #3
The Uncovering the True Cost of Healthcare: The Economic Realities of Caregiving Workshop #3 Learning Report summarizes a February 2025 multi-stakeholder convening hosted by the Center for Innovation & Value Research that examined the often-overlooked financial, career, and health impacts of unpaid family caregiving. Grounded in lived caregiver experiences and current research, the workshop highlighted how caregiving leads to substantial out-of-pocket costs, lost income and career advancement, reduced retirement savings, and significant physical and mental health strain, with disproportionate impacts on women, caregivers of color, younger caregivers, and those balancing multiple caregiving roles. Participants emphasized that many caregivers do not self-identify as such, resulting in underestimation of caregiving’s true economic burden and missed opportunities for support. The report calls for improved measurement of caregiving-related economic impacts, recognition of caregiving networks, attention to how caregiving roles and burdens change over time, and stronger collaboration among researchers, caregivers, employers, and policymakers to develop evidence and policies that better support caregivers and fully capture their contributions to the healthcare system.
