The third full week of April brings a second AARP report, a clutch of state legislative milestones, and a noteworthy practitioner framework from one of the sector's better-known operators.
AARP: long-term care costs continue to outpace income
Recent AARP analyses on long-term care affordability continue to show long-term care costs in the U.S. outpacing income growth in nearly every state. The framing situates the Valuing the Invaluable figure tighter: family caregivers are filling in for paid services because the paid services are economically out of reach for most households.
The useful number to keep in mind is the gap between median household income and median annual home-care costs in each state. In several states, that gap is now larger than annual rent — making professional in-home care effectively unaffordable for any household not already wealthy.
State tax credit bills cross thresholds
Three state caregiver tax credit bills have been advancing through procedural votes this spring: Vermont, Washington, and Connecticut (the Connecticut bill we tracked at the end of March is now positioned for a chamber floor vote). The full state-by-state status is summarized in the HHS ASPE federal-and-state review.
ianacare publishes a practitioner framework on remote caregiving
ianacare — whose B2B2C employer-channel model has grown to serve more than 50,000 caregivers — published a framework for remote caregivers (those caring for a parent in a different city or state) as part of its 2026 webinar series. The framework's most useful pages are on dividing roles between the local primary caregiver and remote siblings without creating the chronic guilt that often results from physical distance.
Briefly noted
- Rosarium Health raised a $6M seed earlier this spring, with new Medicaid and Medicare Advantage partnerships announced this month. The partnership pattern — small mission-driven aging-care startup integrating with health plans — is increasingly the only viable scale path in this category.
- The CMS interim final rule on Medicaid community engagement requirements remains at OMB. Publication expected on or before June 6.
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