policy

Policymakers and communities across the political spectrum are engaging with caregiving as a central issue in the national dialogue like never before. Media outlets are highlighting care challenges as a pressing concern, with CBS News, for example, running a series on the financial and logistical burdens of supporting the nation’s aging population. In politics, the rising costs of child care became a recurring topic during the 2024 presidential campaign. On the policy front, nearly all 350 federal actions outlined in the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers had been completed or were underway by 2024, with federal agencies introducing 40 additional commitments.

The momentum of this conversation drove meaningful action at the state level. Take Texas, Washington, and New Mexico in the last few years. Texas’ late 2023 state proposition decreased property taxes on child care providers. New Mexico’s 2022 constitutional amendment created, among other things, a sustained source of funding for a range of key supports for young children. Washington’s voters defeated a 2024 initiative that would have effectively undermined the State’s novel public long-term care insurance program.

This is smart policy, too. A 2024 poll by BPC Action and Pivotal Ventures found that 92% of Democrats and 82% of Republicans believe that federal caregiving policies would help create a stronger economy. And, from an assessment by the Center of American Progress to a study by the Conference Board, we know that public and private investments in childcare could drive everything from reductions in rates of child poverty and strains on the safety net to robust economic value and job creation.