Championing Healthcare Access, Affordability, and Innovation for Family Caregivers

Family caregivers are at the center of nearly every healthcare journey, yet their perspectives are too often missing from the policies that shape access, affordability, and innovation. The experiences of America’s 63+ million family caregivers offer invaluable insight into how healthcare works and where it falls short. Our Healthcare Access, Affordability & Innovation Initiative will ensure family caregiver voices and priorities inform healthcare policy and decision-making, championing family caregivers as essential care partners, healthcare navigators, and as current and future patients.

Supporting caregivers also means addressing the upstream drivers of caregiver hardship. When patients can get breakthrough treatments for the conditions that place the heaviest demands on families, and when care is more accessible and affordable, the need for intensive caregiving downstream shrinks. Policies that expand access to effective treatment preserve independence and protect the health and well-being of the families who provide care — including caregivers’ own access to the care they need.

Access, Affordability & Innovation Policy Agenda

Supporting caregivers also means addressing the upstream drivers of caregiver hardship. When patients can get breakthrough treatments for the conditions that place the heaviest demands on families, and when care is more accessible and affordable, the need for intensive caregiving downstream shrinks. Policies that expand access to effective treatment preserve independence and protect the health and well-being of the families who provide care — including caregivers’ own access to the care they need.

What the Data Show

The National Alliance for Caregiving’s Caregiving in the US 2025 research, conducted in partnership with AARP, illuminates the emotional, physical, and financial toll shouldered by today’s 63+ million family caregivers—along with the persistent barriers they face accessing affordable, coordinated care. These findings are not abstract statistics; they reflect the daily realities of families stretched thin by a fragmented healthcare system. NAC grounds its policy agenda in this evidence, advancing solutions that directly target the access and affordability gaps caregivers encounter every day.

Improve Access to Quality Healthcare

Improve Affordability of Complex Care

Advance Innovation and Caregiver Inclusion

Download the Access, Affordability & Innovation Policy Agenda

Policy Explainer Series

This series translates complex healthcare legislation and policy into clear, practical insights and what it means for family caregivers. Designed for family caregivers, patient advocates, and policymakers, each explainer combines plain-language summaries, caregiver-focused analysis, Caregiving in the US 2025 data, and caregiver stories to connect policy with real-world caregiving.

Alzheimer's Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act

The ASAP Act is bipartisan federal legislation that seeks to expand Medicare coverage for FDA-authorized early detection screening tests for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, including blood-based biomarker tests. For family caregivers, earlier detection can provide critical time to understand a diagnosis, participate in care decisions, plan for future needs, and access resources that support both the individual living with dementia and the caregiver providing support.

Download the ASAP Act Policy Explainer

Download the ASAP Act Social Toolkit

Honor Our Living Donors (HOLD) Act

Signed into federal law in February 2026, the HOLD Act addresses a long-standing inequity in determining eligibility for living organ donation expense reimbursement by removing recipient income as a factor in donor eligibility. For family caregivers, the law reduces a significant financial barrier by expanding access to reimbursement for travel and lost wages. The HOLD Act recognizes caregivers’ role in the transplant journey and advances greater support for families who make donation and recovery possible.

Download the HOLD Act Policy Explainer